Carla Laos

Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician, Director of Clinical Quality

Hazel Health

Austin, TX USA

“I've learned over the years there’s a different kind of smart. This whole concept of emotional intelligence - there’s an aptitude there that is just as useful in the medical realm.”

Milestones

My road in life has been direct.

I’ve always gravitated towards children, from summer jobs as a camp counselor to volunteering in a TBI unit after college, to coaching cheerleading and rowing.

My father completed medical school in Peru. I decided to consider pursuing medicine from another cultural viewpoint, so I decided to attend medical school in Mexico.

Afterwards, I placed in my first choice pediatric residency program at the University of Florida at Jacksonville. I loved it!

I paid attention to my leadership potential and was named the pediatric resident of the year, PICU residency of the year, and emergency medicine resident of the year.

I landed back in Austin after training at Dell Children’s Medical Center, where I was active as a clinical instructor and gave lectures to fellows and residents.

I took a risk in joining a brand new hospital in Austin and moved up from Assistant Medical Director to Medical Director in 3 months. I held that position for nearly 4 years.

As a minority from a family of immigrants, but also as a lover of learning, I was drawn to the Hazel Health mission of providing all children with access to amazing pediatric care.

I felt that with my experience in pediatrics, my love of working with teams of providers, and my ability to bridge quality with a great culture and outstanding care, I had to try out for the team!

Keep following my journey

Education

High School

Bachelor
English Language and Literature, General
University of Texas at Austin

Doctorate
Medicine
University of Guadalajara

Career

Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician, Director of Clinical Quality

I am a doctor who specializes in taking care of children, specifically in the emergency setting.

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

Medicine

Science

Helping People

Day to Day

I never know what’s coming through the door, so I have to be prepared to take care of a lot. I have to be ready to take care of all sorts of ailments, injuries, and infections. I am really passionate about first responders, paramedics, and EMTs, so I teach them specifically regarding children in emergency situations. I make sure our team as a whole is giving really quality medical care to children in school settings as a telemedicine physician.

Advice for Getting Started

Here's the first step for college students

Try as many things as you can; instead of focusing on what choice to make, focus on what you don’t like. It’s okay to put things on the “that’s not for me” list, but you’re never going to do that until you’re willing to take the risk to try different things.

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Myself:

"You're not the smartest person in your class, you can't memorize things as quickly or regurgitate information."

Being comfortable with failure and what you do after failure is important. Choose to surround yourself with people who encourage you and don’t discourage you. There’s a different kind of learning that comes from failure versus being successful with everything the first time around. There is so much to be gained from how you pick yourself up and how you learn to move forward onto the next step.

Challenges I Overcame

Gender Discrimination

Carla Laos

Pediatric Emergency Medicine Physician, Director of Clinical Quality

Milestones

Education

Career

Career Roadmap

My work combines:

My work combines:

Medicine

Science

Helping People

Day to Day

Advice for Getting Started

Hurdles

The Noise I Shed

From Myself:

Challenges I Overcame

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