Chapter 01: An Early Desire to Be a Physician and Focus on Difficult Illnesses
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Description
Dr. Dmitrovsky begins this chapter by describing his close, 1950s-style family. His father was a chemical engineer who was frequently relocated for his job. Dr. Dmitrovsky explains that he learned to connect with people and make friends quickly through this early experience. Dr. Dmitrovsky also explains that even at a young age, he was interested in becoming a physician and helping people. He aspired to having a life of purpose and meaning, and felt that medicine, particularly with a focus on very difficult illnesses, would provide this.
Identifier
DmitrovskyE_01_20150303_C01
Publication Date
3-3-2015
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - Personal Background; Character, Values, Beliefs, Talents; Personal Background; Inspirations to Practice Science/Medicine
Transcript
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
All right, and so we are recording, and it is about sixteen minutes after nine. Today is the third of March, 2015, and I am Tacey Ann Rosolowski. This morning, I am interviewing Dr. Ethan Dmitrovsky, and am I pronouncing your name correctly?
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Yes, you are, well done.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
All right, well, the Rosolowski can pronounce the Dmitrovsky.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Well done. (laughter)
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So I'm interviewing Dr. Ethan Dmitrovsky for the Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Project, run by the Historical Resources Center at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. Dr. Dmitrovsky came to MD Anderson in 2013 to serve as the institution's provost and executive vice president. He also has a faculty appointment in the department of Thoracic/Head and Neck Medical Oncology in the Division of Cancer Medicine. This interview
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
And also, I have a faculty position in the Department of Cancer Biology.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Oh, OK.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
So I have a dual appointment.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
All right, thank you for adding that.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
So glad to correct that.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, no, absolutely, and that's kind of what this is about
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Yeah, sure.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
to get those details correct. This session is being held in a conference room in the provost's suite in Pickens Academic Tower on the main campus of MD Anderson, and this is our first of two planned interview sessions. So thank you, Dr. Dmitrovsky, for
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Glad to be a part of this important project.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, I wanted to just start kind of at the traditional beginning and ask you where you were born, and then if you could tell me a little bit about where you grew up.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
So I was born in Philadelphia, the child of parents who were traditional sort of 1950s parents, post-World War II, very tight, close-knit family. And my father was a chemical engineer, and so during that era, people had lifetime employment in one company, and so he was as a chemical engineer, he had a lot of content expertise that was in need in his company, so we moved quite a bit. So I moved many times as a child. Born in Philadelphia, moved to New York, moved several times in New York and then moved to Boston, where I was largely raised, and then moved back to New York. And so a lot of bouncing around, which was very typical, sort of lifetime employment, and when someone worked for a company, they worked for their whole career. My father was employed by a single company for thirty-five years.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Did that moving around did you like it? Did it affect you in any way, your sense of home?
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
So when you move around, you acquire certain skills, and one is to connect with people pretty quickly. I was oftentimes in new schools, and I learned how to make friends rapidly and adapt to new circumstances, and so that probably was a skill set that I acquired from that, yeah.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, some people really hate it, I know. Other people warm to it.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
I didn't I warmed to it.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, that's great. Will you share your birth date too, please?
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Well, I'm a little concerned about showing my birth date for security reasons.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
OK.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Yeah, because you know, that is a way that people can access your identity.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Absolutely. I understand.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
And so I actually don't put that on my CV, and I'd rather not give you I can tell you my age is sixty, but my birth date, I would rather not have that in a searchable file, for obvious reasons.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, and that's fine. Thank you for clarifying that.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Yeah.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Well, tell me a little bit about your educational path. I mean, bouncing around to schools, that must have been kind of interesting.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Right.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And when did you know that you were going to focus in the sciences and in medicine?
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Well, I was always interested in spending a life of helping people and using my abilities to devote myself to service for others.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Where did that come from?
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
I don't know where that came from, other than that was always what I felt. And so, even as a child, I wanted to be a physician. So my decision to become a scientist came later in life, but as a physician, that was always my plan, so I entered college with that goal.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
And you don't know where you how you were inspired to become a physician, just [inaudible].
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
No, I just an innate feeling that I had that that would be a life of meaning.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, interesting.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Yeah, and so I always wanted to have a life of purpose and of meaning, and I thought devoting yourself to helping others with illness was an appropriate choice to make. And I wanted to focus on illnesses that were particularly difficult problems, in the hopes that I could address the needs of patients in particular, pressing situations, so that I could be helpful to them.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
When did you start to realize that you had a gift in this area, you know, strength in sciences or...
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
I was always a strong student, and so I didn't actually feel I would have any particular gifts in this area, to be truthful. (laughter) But I was always a strong student and thought I could tackle any content knowledge that was needed to in any career or in any area of scholarship. So, but no, I didn't actually, I didn't feel my skills were necessarily innately there.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So you were a worker.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
I was a worker, yes.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
I've had other people tell me that too.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Many physicians and many scientists would call themselves that, who are people who persevere and bring our talents to the task at hand.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah. And I assume that your family was really supportive of your efforts.
Ethan Dmitrovsky, MD:
Oh, yeah. Yeah, but it was more of an internal feeling that I had to try to have a career of service.
Recommended Citation
Dmitrovsky, Ethan MD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 01: An Early Desire to Be a Physician and Focus on Difficult Illnesses" (2015). Interview Chapters. 636.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/636
Conditions Governing Access
Open
