What is you hometown?
San Angelo, Texas
When did you join the UI faculty?
1999
How/when did you become interested in science and medicine?
I have been interested in science and medicine since a child. My academic aptitude was in math and the sciences. My father is a pediatrician, so I was fostered in a medical career from an early, early age.
What interested you to pursue a career in medicine?
With the foundation outlined above one might think I matriculated straight into a medical career. However, truth be told, my becoming a physician was a result of my exploring a variety of other opportunities. I drove a UPS truck in Boone, North Carolina. I worked as an office manager of a farm implement business in Trap Hill, North Carolina. I found none of these opportunities as intriguing as medicine. To this end I returned to school at the University of North Carolina.
Is there a teacher or mentor who helped shape you career?
My first teacher/mentor has to be my father. Through him I was first exposed to what it was like to be a doctor and first exposed to hospitals. I was impressed by the relationship a doctor has with their patients and families. As a youth I found the tools doctors use to treat their patients to be "cool".
As I have passed through medical school, medical training and now my career as a physician I have been exposed to such a number of remarkable individuals. I believe medicine is unique in the quality and number of mentors one experiences. I am sure almost all my colleagues would concur with my assertion.
Two individuals that exemplify this for me are Dr. James Bryan a gentle Marcus Welby-type internist at the University of North Carolina, and Dr. Dan Foster the head of the internal medicine program at UT Southwestern and one of the smartest, lively, and fostering (no pun intended) individuals I have known.
How or why did you choose the UI?
I came to the University of Iowa in 1993 to train in Cardiology. After training I was offered a faculty position. Iowa City and UIHC offered me all that I desired. Iowa City is a good fit for me.......not the complication of a large metropolitan city while at the same time a diverse and friendly community.
UIHC and the College afford me the ability to serve a needy and appreciative patient population and it provides me with a wide variety clinical and academic challenges.
What kinds of professional opportunities or advantages does being a faculty member at Iowa provide? What about challenges?
I am very active caring for patients. Throughout all my duties I am accompanied by trainees (fellows, residents, and medical students). Teaching and mentoring these individuals is an opportunity most unique to a teaching medical center. If you like to take care of patients and to teach, then it would be hard to find a better environment.
A tertiary care referral hospital like the University of Iowa cares for many of the "sickest of the sick". This provides one of the greatest challenges of clinical medicine.
Please describe you professional interests.
I am trained in internal medicine and cardiology. I have sub-specialized in heart failure and heart transplant. At the University we have a dedicated program for the management of these patients. This is called the Cardiomyopathy Treatment Program. Cardiomyopathy is a term that we use to best refer to the population heart failure and heart transplant.
My interests include simultaneously managing patients in the Cardiomyopathy Treatment Program and teaching fellows, residents and medical students. This includes providing the medical expertise for heart transplant and for ventricular assist devices. In addition our program is active in numerous clinical trials. This allows me to stay abreast of the revolutions in my field.
Finally, I am able to satisfy my appetite for procedures by being active in the cardiac catheterization lab.
What are some of your outside interests?
I love a wide variety of sports including biking, swimming, tennis and volleyball. I like the out of doors and hiking.
Do you have an insight or philosophy that guides you in your professional work?
The patient comes first. In many regards, I am simply a navigator in this whole health care process.
If you could change one thing about the world (or the world of medicine), what would it be?
That is simple: access to quality healthcare. I wish a system could be devised that could meet the medical needs of all.
What is the biggest change you've experienced in your field since you were a student?
Probably two things; one the emergence of ventricular assist devices (mechanical heart pumps) as a viable option for patients with end stage heart failure, and two, the electronic revolution in health care.
What one piece of advice would you give to today's students?
Follow your heart and seize the opportunity. You will likely never be offered so many opportunities as you will be offered in medicine. With a little hard work you can likely realize any of the opportunities.
What do you see as "the future" of medicine?
I do not mean to be overly philosophical, but I would say "the future" of medicine is the same as the past. The people involved are the future of medicine. Through them, discoveries will be made and through them, treatment will be brought to those who need it.
In what ways are you engaged with the greater Iowa public?
I volunteer at the Iowa City Free Medical Clinic. Dr. Maureen Connaly, the medical director, is a skilled clinician and inspirational sort. The clinic offers physicians, pharmacists, nurses, lab technicians, students, and other volunteers to serve a needy population.
I organized and have headed a Cardiomyopathy Symposium. This occurs on a yearly basis typically in January at one of the local convention hotels. The Symposium is geared to educating and informing the public about Cardiomyopathy and Cardiomyopathy issues.
I mentor students from the University of Iowa that are members of an organization interested in a career in medicine.
Our Cardiomyopathy Treatment Program is an active participant in clinical trials. At any one time we are in involved in anywhere from five to eight multi-center clinical trials. Through these trials, our program is able to do its part at pushing back the frontiers of clinical medicine and at the same time offer our patients treatment opportunities beyond those of conventional medical therapy.