Dr. Joon Shim

Dr. Joon K. Shim is a fellowship-trained minimally invasive and bariatric surgeon at Bassett Healthcare Network and Columbia-Bassett Program. As the first female program director at Bassett, she plays an integral part in the education of her surgery residents and the surgical residency training program. She completed her undergraduate degree magna cum laude in Philosophy at Bryn Mawr College in 2000. She earned both her medical degree as well as her master’s degree in public health in a four-year dual program from George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. She completed her residency in general surgery at the University of Massachusetts and a fellowship in minimally invasive surgery and bariatric surgery at Brown University. She joined the US Army after 9/11 in 2002. She served as an active duty Army surgeon and completed two tours as a combat trauma surgeon for Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. She was awarded the Army’s Meritorious Service Medal. In addition to patient care, Dr. Shim is actively engaged and passionate about medical education and teaching both medical students and surgery residents. In January 2020, she received the Harvard Macy Institute Art Museum-based Health Professions Education Fellowship. Additionally, she has implemented a longitudinal leadership course for surgical residents where they meet monthly for two hours to review “Choosing Leadership.” Although she strongly believes in technical excellence and clinical judgment, as a surgeon, she thinks she has been given a number of unique opportunities to make important contributions to medical education. Her foundation in the liberal arts guides her towards a multidisciplinary approach in medical education and surgery. She would like to uncover the hidden curriculum’s impact resulting from emerging technology and its effect on the non-technical skills in medical education. Her interest in utilizing cross-discipline innovations is to effectively change and adapt medical education to contemporary medical practice as she trains the next generation of physicians, emphasizing technical and non-technical skills for the best possible patient care. She is currently the fellow for the American College of Surgeons Certificate in Applied Surgical Education Leadership.