Today we’d like to introduce you to Deborah Shlian.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’ve been fortunate to have had several rewarding careers. After finishing medical school in Baltimore, my husband and I moved to Los Angeles, where we completed our training and
became board-certified Family Physicians. We joined Kaiser Permanente, an integrated group
model HMO, as partners, where we not only cared for patients but also taught UCLA residents,
while medical students from both UCLA and USC spent one month electives at our Kaiser
offices. I was able to pursue my interest in clinical research, publishing in leading medical
journals, and together, my husband and I co-authored several articles on leadership in healthcare
as well as a consumer health guide for a national HMO.
After a decade at Kaiser, I transitioned into my second career—medical administration. I became
Medical Director of Primary Care for UCLA’s Student Health Service, overseeing care for
33,000 undergraduate and graduate students. While in that role, I was encouraged by my
supervisor to pursue an MBA at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management, which I completed
alongside my husband.
Our combined experience—two decades in clinical medicine, extensive knowledge of managed
care, and new management training—made us realize there was a unique opportunity to fill a gap
in the healthcare market.
Still it took many months of soul searching before I actually made the career transition from
physician manager to medical management search consultant. My position at UCLA was vested,
I had spent almost a decade developing staff and programs I believed in including collaborations
with both UCLA’s Anderson School of Management and the School of Public Health, I loved
working with the students and I had been told by my professors in the management school that
more new businesses fail than succeed—especially consulting firms. According to an article in
Fortune magazine at the time, only one new consultancy in five actually thrived. If I really
wanted to be an entrepreneur, I had to be willing to take that risk.
Armed with a business plan including mission statement, my husband and I finally decided to
take the leap. In 1993, we founded Shlian and Associates, a full-service executive search and
healthcare consulting firm.
We began by focusing on physician executive searches for established health plans. Our
backgrounds—as former Kaiser partners and Anderson graduates—gave us a distinct edge. Over
time, we expanded to serve managed care organizations, start-up health plans, utilization review
companies, research institutions, and other consulting firms.
We turned down the opportunity to join at least one major national consulting firm. My husband
felt strongly about keeping our ‘boutique image’ offering more personalized service. He
understood that in a knowledge-based service business like ours, success comes not from scale,
but from expertise and established personal relationships. Instead of hiring a big staff, we built a
national network of highly qualified associates with strong healthcare backgrounds who
collaborated with us on specific projects. One of the most gratifying parts of our work has been
watching the professionals we placed go on to become leaders and innovators in the healthcare
industry.
In 1998, we relocated our firm from California to Florida to help care for our aging parents, all of
whom had significant medical challenges. We obtained Florida medical licenses and continued
to grow our executive search and consulting business. More than 25 years later, we’re proud to
have achieved the kind of long-term success that many said would be rare for a new consulting
firm.
What’s next?
When the COVID-19 pandemic began and many companies downsized, we decided it was time to “retire.” These days, we still mentor a few associates but have shifted our focus to more
creative pursuits—especially writing.
While living in Los Angeles years ago, my husband and I wrote two medical mystery/ thrillers –
Wednesday’s Child published by Simon & Schuster and Nursery(now republished as Double
Illusion) by Berkeley Books. Although our agent urged us to write full-time, we chose to
continue working in medicine and management. Later, in Florida, we completed Rabbit in the
Moon, an international thriller set in China. The book won multiple awards, including the Gold
Medal for the Florida Book Award (we got to meet the governor), First Place in the Royal Palm
Literary Awards, and a Silver Medal from ForeWord Magazine. The audiobook even earned
Honorable Mention at the Hollywood Book Festival.
Encouraged by that success, I went on to write Silent Survivor and then co-authored four medical
mystery/thrillers: Dead Air, Devil Wind, Deep Waters, and Dirty Deeds with Dr. Linda Reid, a
former UCLA colleague. Each has earned literary recognition.
In addition to fiction, I’ve written several nonfiction works, most recently books profiling the
career journeys of women leaders in medicine and STEM. My husband and I have just
completed a new book about dual-physician marriages which is expected to be released around
Valentine’s Day.
What makes you happy:
My marriage is my greatest source of happiness. People often say my husband Joel and I are an
unusual couple—we’ve worked together since meeting in medical school 55 years ago, and
we’re still best friends and each other’s strongest support.
Beyond that, happiness for me comes from doing meaningful work—whether in medicine,
consulting, or writing—that makes a positive difference in people’s lives.
Pricing – Is there any pricing information that you wish our readers to know?
All royalties from my writing are donated to medical research organizations or in the case of Silent Survivor (a military medical thriller), to veterans organizations. My fiction books are all available in print, eBook and Audio and can be found on Amazon as well as other book seller platforms:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=deborah+shlian&crid=28WJZ80HP6WQN&sprefix=%2Caps%2C141&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_9_0_recent
My nonfiction is also available on Amazon as well as through the American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL): https://www.physicianleaders.org/publications/books/lessons-learned-stories-from-women-leaders-stem-shlian?v=42194402640052
• Contact Information (Optional) – (phone, email, social media). Note that this will be shared in the article: The best way to contact me is through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-shlian-md-mba-739283/
Or Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dshlian
Pricing:
- All royalties from my writing are donated to medical research organizations or in the case of Silent Survivor (a military medical thriller), to veterans organizations. My fiction books are all available in print, eBook and Audio and can be found on Amazon as well as other book seller platforms: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=deborah+shlian&crid=28WJZ80HP6WQN&sprefix=%2Ca ps%2C141&ref=nb_sb_ss_recent_9_0_recent My nonfiction is also available on Amazon as well as through the American Association for Physician Leadership (AAPL): https://www.physicianleaders.org/publications/books/lessons-learned-stories-from- women-leaders-stem-shlian?v=42194402640052
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dshlian
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborah-shlian-md-mba-739283/
