Hooked on Rheum with Paul J. Utz, MD
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There were a handful of ways I became interested in rheumatology.
The first was when I was doing research at Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, New York, in summer 1985. I worked with Pat Bealmear, a former nun who had a PhD in research and immunology and left the clergy to focus on science. It was there that I saw how little we knew about how to transplant someone who has severe combined immunodeficiency. But, maybe more importantly, I saw how it was possible to combine research and patient care.
The next step came in medical school when I had the opportunity to do some rounds and meet some rheumatologists. They were super nice people. They were happy, and they seemed to have a great balance of work and lifestyle. They showed me that it was possible to form long-term relationships with their patients, which was something I was hoping to build into my practice and my career. Since most of these diseases do not have a cure, you get to spend time and work with patients and their families, and that appealed to me.
Coming back to the intersection between research and clinical care, when I started seeing patients with connective tissue diseases like lupus and scleroderma, it was clear that we did not understand these diseases at all. I made a career-long commitment to answering some questions about those diseases, even if we knew we were not going to solve them.
Unlike cardiology, pulmonology, oncology or many other specialties, rheumatology offers a lifestyle that is well-suited to being a physician scientist. For many rheumatologists, it is very natural to combine these two areas, and that is probably the last thing that drew me to the specialty.
Paul J. Utz, MD, PhD
Professor of medicine
Division of immunology and rheumatology
Stanford University