UP FRONT
Pulling Back the Curtain
Brady Stein, MD
In this edition, Brady Stein, MD, talks about the overlap between teaching and
practicing medicine, as well as passing down the tradition of hematology. Dr.
Stein is assistant professor of medicine in the hematology/oncology division at
Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago, Illinois.
Dr. Stein with his wife at a Grateful Dead concert.
What was your first job?
My first job was as a golf caddy.
As I am not a golf enthusiast, it
was also my shortest. After that, I
worked at a tennis club for many
summers, which was a much bet-
ter fit for me. I started by helping
to maintain the courts, and even-
tually I worked in the pro shop
and assisted with junior lessons.
During the summer, my
brother and I were always at the
tennis club – my mom was a
lawyer, so she dropped us off early
in the morning and we spent most
of our days at the club, playing
tennis and going to the pool. I
think we got jobs there just by
virtue of being around so much.
There are worse ways to spend
your summer!
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What did you want to be
when you grew up?
Honestly, it’s hard to imagine
doing anything else. I knew from
an early age that I would go into
medicine. My father is a hema-
tologist and I wanted to follow
in his footsteps. Watching him
provided me with an opportunity
to see what the field of medicine
was like – both the good and the
bad. That’s probably the best type
of exposure one could ask for.
I thought about becoming a
teacher, but education is also a
large part of what we do in aca-
demic medicine, whether teaching
medical students, residents, and
fellows, or trying to teach our
patients, so it’s very satisfying.
I think my father might answer
the same way. In looking back
on his own career, if he could do
things differently he might have
gone into academic medicine
because it offers a complement to
patient care, which can be grueling.
Besides your father, is there
anyone who had an effect
on your decision to go into
hematology?
There are many people who helped
me decide to go into hematology,
but it all started with my father,
Robert Stein, MD. He’s a practic-
ing hematologist and has been an
active member of the American
Society of Hematology (ASH) for
more than three decades. He has
attended every ASH annual meet-
ing since the 1970s. When I was
younger, we would joke that while
some fathers take their sons to a
baseball game, he took me to an
ASH annual meeting.
He was – and still is – a strong
influence on my career, offer-
ing advice whenever I need it.
I remember when I started as
an attending seven years ago, I
would break off during hematol-
ogy service rounds, find a hallway,
call my dad, and ask him, “What
would you do in this situation?”
Then I’d go back to join the resi-
dents and tell them what he told
me. We still talk about cases, and
we almost always agree on what
to do. It gives me a nice sense of
validation, because it’s coming
from a hematologist who’s been at
this for four decades.
My decision to pursue
academic medicine was based,
in large part, on what I saw of
my father’s experiences as a
hematologist. But I’m also lucky
to have other strong mentors
in hematology. Many of those
relationships started at Johns
Hopkins University, where I did
my residency and fellowship.
These include Alison Moliterno,
MD; Jerry Spivak, MD; Robert
Brodsky, MD; Sophie Lanzkron,
MD; and Michael Streiff, MD.
Dr. Brodsky, my fellowship
director, designed a unique
program in which I was fortunate
to be the second participant. I
wasn’t interested in solid tumor
oncology, yet hematology and
oncology were linked in one
program – for people who wanted
to concentrate on malignant
hematology or medical oncology.
I was delaying my decision
about which path to follow
post-residency because I wanted
to focus solely on hematology
and, luckily, he created that
opportunity at Johns Hopkins.
There are still few traditional non-
malignant hematology programs
across the country, which has
definitely contributed to a
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