DR. WHO
Dr. Andrew Hart by Kathryn Vance
When Dr. Andrew Hart reflects on his path to medicine, it’ s not one defined by sudden epiphanies or dramatic turns. Instead, it’ s a story of steady determination, deep curiosity and a commitment to serving patients with both science and compassion.
“ I knew what I wanted to do from high school, pretty much,” he said.“ I was interested in sciences, and I wasn’ t a bad student. I was just curious about things and wanted to push myself in my education as far as I could. I wanted to try to achieve everything I potentially could.”
Dr. Hart grew up in a working-class family in Evansville, Indiana. His father worked in the maintenance department of a glass fabrication factory, while his mother was a certified coder in a cardiology practice. He and his younger brother, just 18 months apart, were immersed in the rhythms of family and community life. Like many Midwestern kids, his upbringing was filled with school, sports and scouts. He became an Eagle Scout at 17, an achievement that reflected his sense of discipline and service. Music was also part of his life, playing drums in the school band from fifth grade until graduation.
His interest in medicine solidified in college at Indiana University Bloomington, where he majored in biology. One course in particular stood out, cancer biology.“ It was interesting, because I really always wanted to know how the human body works,” he recalled.“ In medical school, I gravitated toward medicine rather than surgery. I thought about gastroenterology, but in my fourth year of medical school, I did a rotation with an oncologist in Evansville and that was pretty interesting.”
That oncologist, Dr. Mark Browning, had also taught Dr. Hart in the classroom during his second year. His example proved pivotal.“ He inspired me to go into hematology oncology. I enjoyed the patient population and thinking about the biology of cancers and blood problems,” Hart said.
After earning his medical degree at Indiana University School of Medicine in 2004, he matched at Vanderbilt University for his internal medicine residency. He had family in Tennessee, so much so that the annual Hart family reunion has been held for more than a century at their ancestral graveyard in Springfield.
After his internal medicine residency, he pursued a research fellowship in clinical pharmacology, spending two years studying multiple myeloma bone disease. It was challenging work, and he realized he was more drawn to patient care than laboratory science.“ My research career was fairly unsuccessful, but it was a bridge to my clinical fellowship,” he admitted.“ I was too far into clinical medicine to go back
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