Championing Connection, Collaboration, and Care Beyond the Clinic
“Medicine is a team sport.”
Over 36 years in practice, Dr. Lawrence Lusk came to see just how essential relationships and collaboration are, not only to delivering excellent patient care, but to sustaining a meaningful career.
“Team building helps a lot with that,” he reflects, pointing to the connections that improved patient outcomes while also making the work of medicine more rewarding.
That perspective has shaped not only how Dr. Lusk practiced medicine, but how he continues to show up in retirement. Through his work with MAVEN Project, he remains deeply committed to collaboration, supporting frontline clinicians through eConsults while intentionally fostering camaraderie among fellow volunteers.
Looking back, Dr. Lusk’s path into medicine wasn’t linear.
“I was an English major in college,” he says, describing a journey that began far from clinical training. But a biology course and a mentor’s encouragement shifted his direction. “It was kind of a roundabout way to get into medicine,” he reflects, but one that led to a deeply meaningful career defined by both intellectual rigor and hands-on endoscopic practice.
That career unfolded over more than three and a half decades at Kaiser Permanente in South San Francisco, where he took on numerous leadership roles, including Chief of Education, President of the Medical Staff, and Chief of Gastroenterology.
“It was fun to be part of a big organization… working hard to provide the best care possible to a large population,” he recalls. Even there, his early love for writing found a place, where he founded and edited a physician-written publication.
Education was also a constant thread throughout his career. At University of California San Francisco, he has spent 39 years teaching first-year medical students.
When he stepped away from clinical practice, the transition required adjustment and intention.
“People think they’re just going to fall into retirement, but like anything, you have to plan it and build it to make it rewarding,” Dr. Lusk says. “MAVEN has been a nice piece of that for me. I’m doing something that is useful to others and gives me a reason to stay current in medicine and keep up in my field.”
Since joining MAVEN in 2022, Dr. Lusk has focused on eConsults where the need for that support is clear.
“Flying solo with problems that can be complex is putting a lot of weight on their shoulders,” he explains. “Having access to specialists is huge for primary care. I’ve had consults where physicians say, ‘We could get him to see a GI, but we’d have to put him on a plane… or someone doesn’t want to drive six hours through the mountains.’”
For Dr. Lusk, MAVEN helps bridge those gaps, addressing everything from insurance to accessibility to geographic shortages.
But his impact goes beyond consults. Dr. Lusk has also become a connector within the MAVEN community, opening his home to host gatherings for fellow volunteers.
“Everybody’s working from home and you’re often times in your little silo,” he says. “I think one of the things that doctors miss most when they retire is the community they were a part of and it’s nice to try to recreate that.”
Today, Dr. Lusk has built a retirement that blends purpose and fulfillment – studying Danish, traveling, volunteering through MAVEN, and serving on the Board of Directors of an additional nonprofit supporting vulnerable populations.
“In medicine, I’ve been lucky to have a very satisfying career and I’ve always said that you get back more than you give when you’re helping people.”
Dr. Lusk is being honored with the Deborah Gold, MD Champion Award. This award celebrates physician volunteers who go above and beyond to champion and advance MAVEN Project, serving as informal ambassadors across the community and beyond. Dr. Lusk’s enduring belief that “medicine is a team sport” is not only something he practiced throughout his career, it’s a legacy he continues to live out every day.
