An incredibly talented physician, a role model, a source of guidance and comfort, and the best of the best. These are the words patients and colleagues have used to describe Ronald Colson, MD — one of 21 University of Colorado Department of Medicine faculty members inducted into the department’s Clinical Excellence Society, a program that began this year to recognize clinicians who serve as champions for their patients.
“I was proud to be inducted,” says Colson, a primary care physician at UCHealth and an assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine. “Especially in academic medicine, clinicians are often unsung and do not get the recognition they deserve. The Clinical Excellence Society is a terrific idea, and I’m just one of many who deserve to be in it.”
Colson’s dedication to building strong relationships with his patients has proven to be beneficial for all parties — including his division, which has received donations from some of Colson’s patients. When he’s not working, Colson regularly volunteers to help underserved communities, and he mentors future and early-career clinicians.
“My focus is winning patients’ trust and making sure they understand their health and how to take better care of themselves. I want to demonstrate that to students so they hopefully emulate those values and tactics,” Colson says. “I feel incredibly fortunate that 35 years into my career, I still love what I do and feel that I’m in the right place.”
Since he was a kid, Colson always wanted to be a doctor, but it wasn't until his medical schooling that he began to get an idea of the type of doctor he wanted to be.
While attending the University of Illinois College of Medicine, Colson found mentors who inspired him to pursue general internal medicine. He did his internal medicine residency at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. During that training, he found his greatest joy was the outpatient clinic experience, serving as a primary care physician.
After his residency, Colson started his career as a faculty member at the Georgetown University School of Medicine, working there from 1993 until 2004, when he moved to Colorado. From 2004 to 2016, Colson worked in a private practice at Rose Medical Center in Denver before joining the CU Anschutz Medical Campus in 2017.
“Dr. Colson is a team player and leader for our division,” Mark Earnest, MD, head of the Division of General Internal Medicine, wrote in a letter nominating Colson to the Clinical Excellence Society. “Colson thrives in this environment where he is able to take the time to listen and educate his patients and build collaborative relationships.”
As a primary care physician to more than 650 patients — some of whom do not live in Colorado or even the United States — Colson has spent his career developing meaningful relationships with the people he cares for.
Whether it be emails, phone calls, or handwritten notes, many patients and their family members have taken the time to express gratitude for Colson’s care, describing him as personable, attentive, and thorough. Colson does this by showing he is willing to put the time in and answer any questions patients have.
“It’s a really special environment that allows me to spend as much time as I need with patients, and it allows me the energy and opportunity to teach both the patient and student learners during those visits,” he says. “We’re the first line. Patients don’t come into our office with a diagnosis. You have to figure those things out.”
Colson’s diagnostic skills were put to the test in 2019 when an older male patient reported that he was feeling a bit confused and had some chills. After running several tests, Colson found nothing obvious that was causing the fever and chills, so he ordered blood cultures in hopes of getting answers Because there was no reason to admit the patient to the hospital, Colson told the patient’s wife to take him home, watch him carefully, and tell Colson if his temperature increased.
Later that day, the patient’s wife called Colson to let him know that the fever had worsened, reaching 102 degrees, and Colson told the couple to go to the emergency department.
“In the emergency department, they did all the same things I did and still couldn’t find a reason, so they kept him in the hospital,” Colson says. “Then, around 1 a.m., the blood cultures I had ordered started growing very dangerous bacteria, which let the doctors know what they were dealing with and how they needed to treat the patient.”
For roughly two weeks, the patient remained in the hospital. During his stay, Colson and a physician assistant student visited each day to check on him, and so Colson could teach at the bedside.
“I think the family was in awe of the process of teaching at the bedside and the time we took to explain information to them,” Colson says.
As a result, Colson received an Endowed Distinguished Clinician Chair in the Division of General Internal Medicine. The family donated funds to the division so it could “make more doctors like Dr. Colson,” according to Earnest’s nomination letter.
Specifically, the funds went toward recruiting and supporting new division faculty, as well as to support recently hired advanced practice providers (APPs), such as physician assistants and nurse practitioners.
This is not the only time one of Colson’s patients has donated to support the division. Another patient donated funds that went toward the Bozarth initiative, an innovative redesign of primary care where physicians and APPs in clinics are allotted 30 minutes of “protected time” in the middle of the day, every day, to catch up on tasks like emails and patient messages.
“These are things you have to do but don’t typically have time for during the day, so you often have to do it at night — which isn’t very conducive to the absence of burnout,” Colson says. “So far, it’s been very successful.”
Wanting to help underserved populations, Colson also regularly volunteers at the DAWN Clinic — a free, multidisciplinary clinic staffed by students and faculty from the CU School of Medicine that offers medical care to uninsured adults living in Aurora.
In 2019, Colson was given the DAWN Clinic Preceptor of the Year award, which is selected by students who volunteered at the clinic. And in 2020, he received the Volunteer of the Year award from the Colorado Chapter of the American College of Physicians, largely due to his work at the DAWN clinic.
“The DAWN Clinic has been perfect, and it’s also another avenue for me to teach students,” Colson says.
As an educator by nature, Colson loves the opportunity to share his passion for primary care with students.
“We need more doctors who have not just the clinical skills — but also the communication and teaching skills,” he says. “We haven’t had enough primary care doctors in this country for decades. The only way that we attract new doctors to primary care is by showing them the joys of it, which is the long-term relationship with a patient and their family.”