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Meet the Board: Stanley Cohen, MD, strikes balance of academic focus with private practice
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Stanley Cohen, MD, is both a student and a teacher. An avid reader of World War II and post-war history in his spare time, Cohen, a clinical professor in the department of internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, prides himself on also maintaining an academic focus within a private practice group, Rheumatology Associates, where he serves as a physician.
A past president of the American College of Rheumatology — and 2016 recipient of its “master” designation — Cohen is also medical codirector of the Metroplex Clinical Research Center, and codirector of the Presbyterian Hospital division of rheumatology, as well as a member of the Healio Rheumatology peer perspective board.
Cohen recently sat with Healio Rheumatology to discuss his own mentors, professional challenges and successes, and what he would be doing now had he not gone into medicine.
Q : What do you enjoy doing when you a re not practicing medicine?
Cohen : Spending time with my family, including my grandkids; going to the lake house and playing golf.
Q : If you had not pursued medicine and eventually rheumatology, what would you have done?
Cohen : I probably would have gone into the family retail business. My father owned a large department store in Birmingham, Alabama, that was established in 1903, and was in business until 1982. I worked at the store selling clothes from the age of 12 to 24 during the summers. We had the first store that carried merchandise for big and tall people in the south, and if I had gone into the business I would have tried to expand the business. There is still an establishment named “Goldstein and Cohen Store” on the original location and the building is used for events and parties.
Q : Whom do you consider a mentor?
Cohen : As a medical student, I spent a month with Gene V. Ball, MD, a rheumatologist at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, who was instrumental in my decision to become a rheumatologist. My other mentor would be Morris Ziff, PhD, MD, who was my program director at UT Southwestern Medical Center.
Q : What has been your biggest professional challenge?
Cohen : At present, rheumatologists as a profession are experiencing extreme challenges in providing necessary care due to insurance paperwork. Every practitioner has the same issues with the pre-authorization process, which takes significant time and effort, as well as expense, to interact with insurers who deny the care. Trying to get approval for patients with orphan rheumatic diseases is nearly impossible and can take hours of staff time contacting insurers. This is hamstringing offices and increasing overhead cost while reimbursement is dropping. This is a major component of frustration and increasingly leads to provider burnout.
Q : If you could go back in time, what piece of advice would you give your younger self?
Cohen : Try to focus on one specific area rather than multitasking, and become proficient in one area. If I had a chance to go back in time, I would have focused on a primary area of interest rather than dividing my time between patient care, clinical research, medical education and practice management. Although I am not unhappy with how things have turned out, I potentially could have had greater success expending my energy in one specific area. I think for the person looking for academic success, the ability to focus on their area of interest enhances the likelihood of that success.
Q : What would you consider one of your biggest successes in your specialty?
Cohen : For myself, maintaining an academic focus in a private practice group — patient care, teaching, clinical research along with serving the specialty through the American College of Rheumatology — has been one of my greatest and ongoing achievements.
Q : What do you think will have the biggest influence on rheumatology in the next 10 years?
Cohen : Hopefully, the realization of personalized medicine through better understanding of the genomics of our disease with development of treatment biomarkers, as we have seen in oncology.
Q : What kind of diet and exercise regimen do you have?
Cohen : I walk for exercise, but I would say that my diet is not worth mentioning.
Q : What is your favorite restaurant?
Cohen : That is hard to say, as there are so many excellent restaurants in Dallas.
Q : What is the last book you read? Why, and what did you think of it?
Cohen : The last book I read was “Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission” by Bret Baier, which examines Eisenhower’s last days as president. I thoroughly enjoy the history of World War II and the post-war period.
Q : What is your favorite travel destination?
Cohen : Tuscany. It is the most beautiful place in the world; great people and great food, as well as great Italian history.
Q: What would you be doing now if you hadn’t gone into medicine?
Cohen: Sports broadcaster, as I am avid sports fan, especially college football. My favorite college team is Alabama, being from the state even though I didn’t go to college there. In professional sports, the Dallas Cowboys are my home team. The Dallas Mavericks are the most fun, and I have season tickets to the Mavs.
For more information :
Stanley Cohen, MD, can be reached at 8144 Walnut Hill Ln., Suite 800, Dallas, TX 75231; email: arthdoc@aol.com.
Disclosure: Cohen reports he is a clinical investigator and/or research consultant for Amgen, Biogen-IDEC, Bristol Meyer Squibb, Centocor, Genetech, Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck and Roche.