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A Conversation with Robert A. Harrington, MD
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In this issue, Dr. Bhatt poses five questions to Robert A. Harrington, MD, professor of medicine and the chairman of the department of medicine at Stanford University.
In July 2012, Harrington accepted his current position at Stanford after being a faculty member in the division of cardiology at Duke University since 1993 and professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center (DUMC) since 2003. Harrington received his medical degree at Tufts University School of Medicine in 1986 and served as an intern, resident and chief resident at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center and fellow at DUMC.
Deepak L. Bhatt
Robert A. Harrington
Harrington’s research interests over the last 20 years have focused on redefining the care of patients with acute ischemic heart disease, while building local, national and international collaborations for the efficient conduct of innovative clinical research and trying to better understand and improve upon the methodology of clinical trials. He currently has more than 300 publications in peer-reviewed journals.
What are your hobbies outside of practicing medicine?
Dr. Harrington: I am passionate about the Boston Red Sox, specifically, and baseball more generally. One of the best things about living on the West Coast is that 7 p.m. games on the East Coast start at 4 p.m. here, so I get home just in time for the last few innings.
I also enjoy spending time with my wife and four daughters and collecting wine. I’m an active fiction reader. One of the nice things about working at Stanford is that literally right next to me is the office of Abraham Verghese, who is the author of Cutting for Stone. One day this past summer I came home and my daughter asked me how my day was. I said, “My day? You tell me how my day was: this afternoon I spent a half-hour with Abraham talking about what books we were reading! Incredible. But that’s Stanford.”
Who has had the greatest influence on your career?
Dr. Harrington: Robert Califf, MD, at Duke. He has been my primary mentor, colleague and friend for almost 23 years. Rob has influenced me in many ways. He got me involved in the world of clinical research. He taught me probably the most important thing I’ve learned about clinical research, which is that you need to be a busy active clinician to understand the questions of clinical research and that if you’re a good clinical researcher you should be thinking about those research questions as a clinician. Rob really taught me the value of patients informing your clinical research and your clinical research informing your patient care. Finally, Rob taught me the value of needing diverse expertise in your research group to be successful. All great lessons.
What advice would you offer a student in medical school today?
Dr. Harrington: There’s never been a better time to think about a career as a physician scientist, so if you’re in medical school this is a great time to ask yourself, “What’s the clinical field that interests me, and what are the questions around that clinical field that my scholarship might contribute to?” There are opportunities for people doing discovery science, clinical science, translational science and population health science. I would also say that in addition to your medical school training do the following: get great clinical training; find an outstanding mentor who has a track record of developing mentees; get formal quantitative training in order to pursue your research field; and, finally, work on your communication skills, not only for the sake of oral presentations but also for your ability to write, communicate and transmit your ideas most effectively.
Have you ever been fortunate enough to witness or to have been part of medical history in the making?
Dr. Harrington: As a fellow in the early 1990s, I was fortunate to be intimately involved with the development of the glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors and was involved in a very hands-on way with some of the first clinical trials of these agents. I do vividly remember occasions when we gave patients these drugs for the first time and removed a femoral sheath while they still had these drugs infusing. James Tcheng, MD, from Duke and I spent a 4th of July at the bedside of a patient to remove sheaths after getting one of these drugs. There were a variety of firsts with the development of those drugs and I consider myself very privileged and honored to have been part of the early stages.
What do you enjoy doing to relax?
Dr. Harrington: In addition to watching the Red Sox and spending time with my wife and daughters, the other thing I do to relax is spend time with my family at our cabin on Kerr Lake, which is on the border of North Carolina and Virginia. This past Thanksgiving, we actually spent our first holiday there. My wife says it is the one place in the world where I truly decompress. And even though we now live across the country, we have no intentions of getting rid of the cabin. It’s where my wife and I raised our daughters. It’s a very simple, small cabin that is very special to us.