Peter Panagos, MD

Peter Panagos, MD

I’ve been fortunate enough in my life to have lived in many different places which I believe provide me with global perspective on life and academics.  Born, raised and educated in NH for my first 21 years as first generation immigrant son, I grew up with many amazing role models and mentors in life but none for a potential career in medicine.  I was fortunate by chance to find some guidance after college graduation while working and studying in Boston, medical school in Atlanta, internship and advanced training in California and Florida, living in Japan for 3+ years and finally residency and fellowship in Cincinnati.   I never had a plan.  I never had a formal mentor relationship. Yet, I surreptitiously surrounding myself with a strong team who served as good role models and freely offered their time and counsel. 

I arrived to WashU in 2009 after my first faculty job at Brown.  While I loved the people and the RI location, I lacked any mentorship or collaboration in my selected subspecialty of stroke.   I left Brown after 6 years solely for this reason.  I moved my wife who had an amazing job, 1st grade daughter and 3rd grade son from a home they loved because I lacked any formal mentorship or professional collaborative plan.  Let that sink in.  I’m grateful to them for agreeing to this crazy plan.

As you might know, I’m the current Vice-Chair and Professor of Emergency Medicine and Neurology.  In 1987 I graduated of Dartmouth College. In between college and medical school, I moved to Boston to live, play and gain some experience in medicine while dabbling in an advanced degree from Boston University.  We would call this experience now a 3-year gap experience. I completed my medical education at Emory University.   Following a year of surgical training at Naval Medical Center San Diego, I graduated as a Naval Flight Surgeon in Pensacola, Florida.  From 1996-1999, my wife and I were stationed in Okinawa, Japan.  During my military service, I traveled the world visiting some of most amazing and terrifying places on earth.  In 2002, I completed my residency in Emergency Medicine in Cincinnati and then a Neurovascular Emergencies/Stroke Fellowship.  During residency we had a child and our second child during fellowship.  We had absolutely no family support during this time.  It was rough but we somehow prevailed.

At Washington University, I’ve been fortunate enough to find a strong mentorship team outside our department allowing me to serve as PI for multiple NIH and Industry funded clinical trials. I’ve served as the Director of Neurovascular Emergencies, Co-Director of the Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Washington University Stroke Network and several other hospital and system roles.  Due to the advice of mentorship and support of the Chair, I’ve been able to develop a national/international relationship by serving on the AHA Co-Chair of Mission: Lifeline Stroke, AHA Chair, Emergency Neurovascular Care Committee (ENCC) and Chaired the ASA Stroke Council Leadership Committee.  I also serve as an Associate Editor of Academic Emergency Medicine and an Emergency Medicine Oral Board Examiner.   One of my true passions is speaking and traveling and I have been fortunate enough to give over 500 lectures across the region, nation and world.   This is how I charge my battery.  I carefully prioritize this part of my career since it comes with sacrifice in time away from the office and family.

My journey to where I am today is fully a result of both the worst and best examples of mentorship.  I’m thankful for both experiences.  I believe my ability to mentor is strongly influenced by this collective experience.  You should not make the mistakes I made, ever.

As a mentor, I will serve as sounding board and someone to provide unbiased opinions on your career development.   A good mentee relationship develops organically and frequency of meeting is highly dependent on where you are in your career.   With the advent of e-mail, Zoom, DM and social media platforms, mentorship takes on such a different look and feel than when I started out 20 years ago.