behind it , perfect for someone with an engineering background .
Initially , he had a clear direction and planned to stay in Louisville , hoping to follow a career path similar to that of Dr . John Roberts , a neonatologist that one day would be a Pediatrics Residency Program Director . However , 20 minutes before his Match form was due , something changed in his heart , and he made literally , a last-minute switch . “ The more I thought about it , the more I felt that to grow as a person , I needed to get away from my hometown for a while and challenge myself in a totally new environment , where nobody knew me , and I would be starting from scratch .”
His fiancée and eventual wife Marcie had no idea he made the change until after it was submitted , but after Match results , she followed him upriver to the Cincinnati Children ’ s Hospital Medical Center .
“ I wanted to be a part of the scientific changes in neonatal intensive care : new ventilators , new medicines , new techniques used on premature babies . The survival rates were improving every year . Even in those early days at Cincinnati , I was sometimes able to troubleshoot and fix those early generation machines because of my engineering background . At the time it really came in handy being able to understand how they worked under the hood .”
He knew the competitive Cincinnati program took just four fellows each year with only one usually reserved for a current resident . Luckily , he did not have to compete against his best friend in residency , Dr . Brenda Poindexter , who decided to have a baby and moonlight that year instead ; three years later he completed his neonatology training . Although he knew he wanted to come back home and work in a university setting , there weren ’ t any academic positions available here at the time . Instead , a private neonatologist , Dr . Moises Dreszer , made him an offer to join his practice . Walking in on his first day in 1996 , the practice had just two patients in the NICU and Dr . Cohen immediately questioned his decision . But , with some talking off the ledge from his father and wife , he became convinced that he would give building a practice and a home for their family in Louisville a shot .
“ I said I ’ d give it two years and see what happened … and here we still are today .”
After working with Dr . Caroline Willette and Dr . Dale Hill to rebuild the neonatal practice over the next few years , Dr . Cohen brought in two former Cincinnati fellows that he had trained with , Dr . Ketan Mehta and Dr . Mukul Shah , eventually to form a new practice known as “ CMS ”. Previously , Drs . Willette and Hill had left to form their own separate practice and after a few years , they all united to form a new merged practice , Neonatal Intensive Care Experts , known locally as “ NICE .” This allowed them to hire a much-needed seventh neonatologist , Dr . Cohen ’ s younger brother Jonathan , who was just finishing up his own training , also in Cincinnati .
The practice continued to grow quickly and merged again in 2011 , becoming part of Norton Healthcare as “ Norton Children ’ s Neonatology ”, topping out with 16 neonatologists and five nurse
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