Hooked on Rheum with Robert W. Levin, MD
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I always knew I was interested in medicine. By the time I arrived at college, I decided that a career as a physician was what I wanted to do, but I was still not quite sure what I wanted to do in medicine. There were so many options.
I figured out pretty early that I did not want to be a surgeon, so I went into internal medicine. My thought was that I might want to be an internist or that I might want to specialize in something.
In my second year of residence at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, in Philadelphia, I did a rheumatology rotation with Bruce Hoffman, MD, who was chief of the program at the time. I found my mentor. I can’t say enough good things about Dr. Hoffman. He is caring, intelligent, soft spoken, and still the best diagnostician that I have ever encountered. He made a difference in the lives of his patients with what little tools we had back then, even before the biologic era.
From there, I found the whole field of rheumatology to be pretty fascinating. Dr. Hoffman showed me that being a rheumatologist makes you a problem solver. We are the last consultants called in on the most difficult cases. We are the sleuths. That was always something that appealed to me.
Once I got my head around this aspect of the specialty, I decided that this was what I wanted to do.
I do not regret my decision at all. It has been a great ride. When I started out, as I mentioned, we did not have the tools that we have now, so I have been able to see first-hand the transition to the biologic era — this time when we can really make a difference in how patients feel and how they live their lives.
Robert W. Levin, MD
Past president of the Florida Society of Rheumatology
President of Alliance for Transparent and Affordable Prescriptions (ATAP)
Board of Directors of the Coalition of State Rheumatology Organizations (CSRO)
Board of Directors of the American Arthritis and Rheumatology Associates (AARA)
Associate affiliate professor of medicine
University of South Florida