Dr. Michael Morkos is an Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, specializing in Endocrinology and Metabolism. He received his medical degree at Alexandria University School of Medicine in Egypt. He completed his internal medicine residency at John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital of Cook County and endocrinology fellowship at Rush University Medical Center, both in Chicago, IL. He earned a master’s degree in clinical research at Rush University Medical Center and a master’s degree in healthcare informatics at Indiana University. Dr. Morkos earned the American Board Certification in internal medicine, endocrinology, and clinical informatics.

Dr. Morkos has several interests besides medicine that ended up being the best fit for the idea behind his brand of MD Efficacy, this website, and his upcoming book series to help other physicians improve their efficiency and productivity in clinics while maintaining excellent patient outcomes and satisfaction scores. Some light is being shed below on the details.

Clinical Medicine: The core of a physician’s scope of practice is helping patients using medical knowledge. Dr. Morkos strongly believes in clinical excellence as the core for achieving clinical efficiency and efficacy. His clinical practice is currently focused on thyroid disorders. He is the co-director of the multidisciplinary thyroid and parathyroid center at Indiana University, the sole one in Indiana. He was the first physician to introduce thyroid radiofrequency ablation (RFA) in Indiana, and he is one of the few physicians in the US to use spectral Doppler ultrasound in the initial assessment of patients presenting with thyrotoxicosis. Thyroid RFA is a novel, minimally invasive, and highly effective procedure to treat symptomatic benign thyroid nodules, small thyroid cancers, parathyroid adenomas, and metastatic lymph nodes in the neck.

Clinical Research: Dr. Morkos earned a master’s in clinical research at Rush University Medical Center in 2017. He performed statistical analyses for all his studies, including descriptive and inferential analyses. He also developed and validated a logistic regression-based predictive model for the risk prediction of acute pancreatitis in patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia [1, 2]. He believes understanding research concepts and statistical analyses is essential to assess the daily clinic operations and develop sound assessments to guide interventions.

Computer and Informatics Skills: Dr. Morkos has a long-standing passion for dealing with computers. He was the de facto clinical champion in guiding his colleagues on improving efficiency through shortcuts and interface improvements in the electronic health records (EHR) during residency, fellowship, and as a faculty member. He earned a master’s degree in healthcare informatics from Indiana University in 2021 and the American Board Certification in Clinical Informatics in 2023.

Accounting and Business: Dr. Morkos aced the subjects of accounting and business during high school. Since then, these concepts have remained, including the T accounts, profit and loss accounts, balance sheets, and break-even points. He has a special love for math, numbers, and quality improvement. They became an integral part of his planning and thought processes.  These skills are crucial in understanding and managing productivity and having reasonable projections.

Quality Improvement: There are always opportunities for improvement. Recognizing these chances, analyzing the root causes, brainstorming the options, implementing changes, and assessing the impact need unique skill sets. During residency training, Dr. Morkos was awarded the best idea and teamwork for a quality improvement project. He proposed and facilitated the implementation of many quality improvement initiatives during his practice. These are critical skill sets to ensure resisting inertia and improving the practice workflow, patient satisfaction, clinical efficiency, and productivity.

Understanding Human Psychology: The main scope of practice of Dr. Morkos is outpatient medicine, although he does monthly procedures and 6-8 weeks of inpatient service per year. His clinic is the busiest among the faculty in the division of Endocrinology and Metabolism. Therefore, understanding how to effectively deal with people, including patients, clinic staff, and clinic leadership, is a must to ensure smooth daily clinic operations and excellent impacts. Dr. Morkos enjoyed reading and understanding human psychology for years, and he is the guru at his church, along with a psychiatrist, in delivering psychology-related topics in adult and youth meetings. It is an art and a skill that all clinicians need to comprehend and grow.

Counseling, Mentorship, and Public Speaking: Dr. Morkos is passionate about teaching and guiding others. He believes in the Socratic teaching philosophy, starting with questions to assess the audience level before building on it. Over the years, he enjoyed coaching many medical students, residents, fellows, faculty members, and Sunday school students. He is also interested in the art of public speaking, and his presentations are engaging.

Leadership: Dr. Morkos had several leadership positions at his local church, serving around 500 families. He is the current secretary for the church’s board of trustees since 9/2019, was the coordinator for the high school services 2021 – 2023, and is currently assisting in coordinating all the Sunday school services at his church. He suggested and led several work-related projects as well.

Improving physicians’ efficacy, productivity, efficiency, and well-being and maintaining excellent patient outcomes and satisfaction necessitates unique skill sets besides solid medical knowledge. Dr. Morkos’ mission is to dive deep into these various skill sets, elaborate on them, and help coach other physicians to improve their lives in the clinic.

References

1. Amblee, A., et al., Acute pancreatitis in patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia in a multi-ethnic minority population. Endocrine Practice, 2018. 24(5): p. 429-437.
2. Morkos, M., et al., External validation of a predictive model for acute pancreatitis risk in patients with severe hypertriglyceridemia. Endocrine Practice, 2019. 25(8): p. 817-823.