My medical education began early: as a child, in fact, watching my father, a very hardworking physician of the old school, constantly checking on his patients, responding to their problems, always thinking about them. He was a model for me even before I decided to become a doctor myself. In medical school at Columbia University I encountered another model, the eminent Dr. Stanley Fahn, with whom I later did my fellowship training in Movement Disorders. People brought him their most difficult problems, and no matter how tough the case he always found ways to help them: I have always tried to do the same.
After fellowship, I joined the Movement Disorders group at the Cleveland Clinic, which had one of the earliest large programs in the country for deep brain stimulation (DBS). I 'grew up' with the Cleveland Clinic DBS program becoming senior neurologist on the DBS team before moving to the University of Minnesota in December 2014.
All physicians learn from patients, but few scientists are so fortunate. I am both a physician and a scientist, and in the second role I have been privileged to learn a great deal from patients. Not only have they been kind enough and altruistic enough to participate as subjects in my own and others' research, but the insights I've gained from treating them have influenced my research while the research, I believe, has helped me treat them.
