FACULTY
Thuan D. Ong, M.D., M.P.H.
Acting Instructor
Career Interest: Dr. Ong's research interest is in the assessment of decision making capacity in older adults. His career goal is to follow the clinician teacher track and at the end of his fellowship he will be joining the UW Division faculty as an Acting Instructor of Medicine in the department of Gerontology and Geriatric Medicine. He is rated as an outstanding teacher by all level of trainees, but especially the group that is most critical of instructors, medical students, raves about him. As a clinician teacher, he will be involved in clinical care in the acute hospital setting, in clinic, in long-term care, and in home visits. He will teach students, house staff, and fellows while continuing the research he initiated during this his second year of fellowship.
Research Description: Older patients need to have decision making capacity (DMC) in order to make their own medical decisions. Physicians need to be able to assess whether a patient can make his/her own decisions. Although any physician may determine if a patient has DMC, there is evidence that this may not be the case. For example, in one study, inpatient medical teams only identified one quarter of patients lacking capacity. Additionally, 25% of inpatient psychiatry consultations are for determination of DMC with most of requests coming from internists. There are currently no published reports on the prevalence of DMC curricula in internal medicine residencies, how the topic is taught, and how proficiency is assessed.
During his second year of fellowship, Dr. Ong undertook a two-part study to understand the state of teaching about determination of DMC within internal medicine residency programs in the US. In the first part of the study, he mailed surveys to all US internal medicine residency program directors asking them to describe how determining DMC is taught and how proficiency is assessed in their program. In the second part of the study, internal medicine residents at four US internal medicine residency programs completed an online survey asking about their knowledge of key elements of DMC and their educational experiences around DMC.
For Dr. Ong's next project, he plans to initiate a pilot study soon looking qualitatively at the changes with intimacy and sexuality that occur when a significant other suffers from dementia.
College: 1998, University of California, Los Angeles
Master of Public Health: 2000, University of California, Los Angeles
Medical School: 2004, Saint Louis University
Residency: 2004-2007, Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis
Chief Resident: 2007-2008, Internal Medicine, University of California, Davis
Fellowship: 2008-2010, Geriatric Medicine, University of Washington
Publications: Go to PubMed.
Clinic Information: Harborview SeniorCare Clinic
General Information: Email Dr. Ong.