Maggie McKay (Host): To switch careers from engineering to medicine is a major change. Dr. Michael Homer, Physician Partner with Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area, joins us to talk about that. Also joining us is Jackie Xu, Medical Assistant and Founder of Sincare Medical Tour Concierge.

Welcome to Fertile Edge, a podcast from Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area. I'm Maggie McKay. Let's start with you, Dr. Homer. What a departure to go from engineering to medicine. Why'd you select engineering?

Michael Homer, MD, REI: Well, I grew up with a lot of engineers in my life. My brother and grandfather were both engineers, and so growing up I just loved trying to solve puzzles. In high school, I really enjoyed math and science and trying to learn how things worked. So, I had decided kind of early on that I wanted to be an engineer, and so I decided to attend University of California, Berkeley for their mechanical engineering program.

Host: So what made you change course to medicine?

Michael Homer, MD, REI: Well, after graduation, I was finally on my own, and working, and realized within about six months, actually, that though I enjoyed the problem solving and the method of engineering; I didn't really like the projects I was working on or what the goals were. I had some family that were also in medicine and after talking to them, I realized that I could apply those skills to actually help people directly.

Host: Dr. Homer, do you see any similarities between the two?

Michael Homer, MD, REI: Yeah, very much. I mean, everything that we do in our fertility treatment is trying to, you know, get the facts and get the information, synthesize the best way to use that in order to help the patients. And since our success is so kind of well-defined, everyone wants to have that baby, then we always have our project goal right there for us.

Host: What do you take the most pride in from your daily practice?

Michael Homer, MD, REI: The thing that I most enjoy is when I speak to the patients, is to quickly figure out where they are in their journey, how to meet them there, and how to help them keep going along their journey. And I do really feel that one of my big strengths is what we say is bedside manner, which is the ability to speak with patients to make sure that they fully know that I am there to help support them as well.

Host: Jackie, how does Sincare complement RSC's fertility treatment as it relates to patients coming from China?

Jackie Xu, MA: I believe two angle or perspection we can help patient. So number one is, before cycle or we call that pre cycle. We have to overcome the barrier, language, culture, and right now, geopolitical reason to let patient access to the best clinic in the country. If like further down like language, of course, you know, the patient is really hard to understand the term medical term. And then the culture is the way of in a hospital works, you know, in China, in a hospital, like a big roof, everything you go to pharmacy, you go to a lab under one roof, but here is so different.

So no schedule thing in China. So that's a system. And the other cultures, different way is, you know, how a patient get information, find out the clinic they want, the way of they use the channel is different, here like Facebook, podcast, YouTube, but even, Chinese American here, they rather use to their own in Chinese community, Chinese American community, like WeChat, like TeenTalk, like different channel.

So that's another way we, like today video, we gonna, you know, add and put on those channel to spread words like Chinese patient to access to the best clinic they can choose. So that's a barrier. Step two is pre cycle, like the other day, the other doctor mentioned, we try to how to like accommodate, their travel schedule, especially for international patient. Our team, cause we have a team in Beijing, in China. So, our team can help a patient get all of the tests done before they come in, schedule first so when they got here, they direct into the cycle. So that's, uh, save patients time, money, lot of things. So into the cycle, we have a two part team, uh, the marketing and profiling team in China, we have, uh, operation team here to help patient, during the cycle, like translate, like coordinate or escort them cause we have been helping people, patients, I believe, couple of hundred during the past 10 plus years. So we know every steps of patients go through, kind of give them a little bit a guide what it's expectation is. And also our team, the bilingual, like myself, bilingual medical assistant, another member is, you know, certified bilingual medical translator so we can help patient, uh you know, uh, get all the instructions from doctor, nurse, to patient, you know, correctly. And, that's the one part. The other part we can have, like, after visiting or before visiting, we have many way of education. Like, we also do, like video. We, try to explain, in Chinese about, say, for example, what the egg retrieval procedure looks like.

Because RIC has a video procedure for egg retrieval from check in, pre op, um, and post recovery. We explain, you know, we make that video and explain in Chinese and then teach the patient, oh, this is what it's. It's like the nurse, doctor, anesthesiologist in the room, how long. So that's education part. So get patient like try to be hassle free because it's a complicated journey.

Host: Jackie, how long have you been working with RSC to provide concierge services?

Jackie Xu, MA: I believe, around 10 plus years when I first start to being brought patient in to Dr. Wex and then I was translating in a meeting, which is RSC represent for IVF clinic in the United States and like meeting another party is a very prestigious, IVF clinic who they have 10,000 cycle a year, from China from local official like HHS and, uh, clinic.

So, like, the like a whole group, like 50 groups. So I get to know RSC how, 10 years ago, how they work as a team. Right now they still have a morning session for all the cases, cases like work on, or you have a like senior doctor help, you know, you have questions asked, you still have that. I know it's before technology take off, right? You still have that.

Host: Thank you both so much for your time. It's been a pleasure.

Jackie Xu, MA: Thank you.

Michael Homer, MD, REI: Thank you.

Host: Again, that's Dr. Michael Homer and Jackie Xu. And to find out more, please visit rscbayarea.com/about-Chinese.

And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out our entire podcast library for topics of interest to you.

I'm Maggie MacKay. This is Fertile Edge, a podcast presented by Reproductive Science Center of the San Francisco Bay Area. Thank you for listening.