May Pian-Smith

Continuing our series "Getting to Know Our Neighbors", we want to introduce you to May Pian-Smith, who has lived in the Esplanade for two years and has been a physician at MGH for 30 years. May’s parents immigrated from China in the 1950s and, before her move to Cambridge, she lived in Lexington most of her life. Her children grew up there.

Her son Ben (35 years old, who got married last month to Colleen) lives in California and is a writer and producer in Hollywood. Among many writing, producing. and directing credits, he is co-executive producer for Hulu's "Only Murders In The Building,” a popular and award-winning show. He also performs on camera in the last episode of Season 4. May notes that as a child Ben had originally wanted to be a Supreme Court Justice. May remembers suggesting that he have a Plan B! As an undergrad at Harvard, he did some ‘“otal rethinking of his career plans” and decided he wanted to be a comedy writer. He never strayed from that path and he has been quite successful. He took May to the Emmy Awards last year and she said it was great fun.

May’s daughter Jade, 28 years old, is a medical student at Northwestern Medical School in Chicago. She is presently living with May in the Esplanade while she pursues a year-long research fellowship at Beth Israel Hospital. She hopes to complete a residency in plastic surgery either in Los Angeles or Boston. Jade is also a talented artist (drawing, painting, stone carving, woodworking, ceramics) and that talent will benefit her future work as a reconstructive plastic surgeon. As an undergrad at Dartmouth, she was also a busy athlete, competing in rowing and volleyball. She is thrilled to have found a volleyball league in Cambridge and competes every Tuesday night!

May majored in biology at Harvard and then received a post-graduate degree in pharmacology and physiology at Cornell. After med school in New York, she completed an anesthesiology residency at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. May’s clinical specialty is obstetric anesthesia and her work has been focused on improving the healthcare of women. She has had further fellowship training in Medical Education and Patient Safety, and “these areas continue to be the focus of my research efforts and committee work.” May is Director of Anesthesiology Quality & Safety for the entire Mass General Brigham (MGB) Enterprise, which includes 14 hospitals and surgi-centers: “Our mission is to learn from our successes and failures, continuously improve the quality of care we provide, commit to a culture of safety that protects our patients and colleagues, and to inspire and develop the next generation of quality and safety leaders.” May emphasizes: “A priority is to improve how we clinicians take care of our patients and each other.” We are always asking: “What keeps us up at night? What are best practices? How do we improve our collaborations and connections to improve clinical outcomes and enhance our joy from work?”

In addition to this work, May was recently President of the Society for Obstetric Anesthesia & Perinatology (SOAP). She speaks Mandarin and has traveled to China many times with an obstetrics team of MD’s, nurses, and midwives to offer team training in crisis simulation, patient safety, and eventually to “train the trainers.” As a result of their work there, there has been an improvement in the outcomes and lower rate of emergency cesarean sections. As May noted, “We didn’t just offer fish but we taught them how to fish” and, importantly, they improved patient safety and outcomes.

May has many roles in her position at MGB, including teaching (she is an Associate Professor at Harvard Medical School), research, clinical, and administrative roles.  She notes that her work brings her a lot of joy and she appreciates the relationships and connections that she has developed over the years. In addition to her busy work schedule, has also served on multiple boards, including the Mass General Physicians’ Organization (MGPO), SOAP, the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation (ASPF), and the Foundation for Anesthesia Education and Research (FAER). She is also on the editorial board for the British Journal of Anesthesia Education.

For fun, May loves cooking (“cooking and entertaining are my love language”), crafting, and traveling. Favorite trips include China, Tibet, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Dubai, Norway, and Italy. She has been to all the continents except Antarctica (so far!).

May has a couple recommendations for local restaurants: Pagu at 310 Mass. Ave. in Cambridge and the Limani Grille in the Seaport District. (A friend of May’s was the architect of both places.)  She also has some suggestions for the Esplanade to continue to develop our sense of community. One is a “dine-around” for residents to reserve a room or large table at a rotation of restaurants and to have people sign up to share a meal together. Another is to do the same for a show or a museum for a group experience. May also would like to see more outside activities like a “walking group” with photos taken along the way being shared on our ListServ. May is a delightful, multi-talented, and successful neighbor so when you see her, say hi!

---Jane Hilburt-Davis