David Schlosser
Alumni
- Home country:USA
I help patients with complex, mysterious, and/or life-threatening illness find ways to further characterize their disease with the goal of identifying new treatment opportunities. After thoroughly discussing the patient's clinical history, we research medical literature to identify data on options like additional diagnostics, cutting-edge or patient-specific therapies (both mainstream, experimental, and complementary), ways to mitigate side effects of treatments, and identifying what clinician or researcher has specific expertise in some niche of the patient's condition, wherever they are in the world. It’s entirely a patient-directed process, and so while I can come up with ideas of things to work on, the patient ultimately decides what we work on, how broad of a net we cast, and the pace at which we work. About 2/3 of the patients I work with have some sort of cancer, but the rest are afflicted by a wide range of issues, and I’ve worked cases over the past 13 years in every single medical specialty with patients ranging in age from 3 to 93 years. I have established a private practice doing this work.
My typical day usually consists of quite a bit of reading and writing, reviewing medical journal articles (and the searches to find them) and medical records in great detail and then writing clinical summaries and an analysis of the research the patient and I have outlined. There's also a considerable amount of time writing email communication, with both patients and clinicians or researchers, ranging from the patient's own physician to someone identified in literature. I use video conferences or phone calls to discuss more complicated matters. For example, I will usually connect with a patient by video to discuss the results of research, so I can explain it in layman's terms and then also how they can act on it. I will also sometimes accompany a patient by video to a consult with a physician.
My current career is something I developed over a period of time while helping a family member with a critical health crisis. They were not making much progress in getting better, over several years, so I started helping them in a way similar to what I do now, except back then I was far less experienced. Eventually, however, I came to realize that other people must need similar help, and so I decided to make a career change.
While I came to Bham with a science degree in molecular biology, I lacked a clinical education. My course provided me with just that, and it's what motivated me to move across the world to get it in a degree program. It was not only an incredible learning experience that taught me the basics of what I needed to know to communicate effectively with clinicians, but it was so rewarding to live in a different culture, and I also made great friends that I still have today.
Identify what fulfills you, what makes you happy. Identify what you're good at. Where those two intersect is where your ideal career path is.
It's easier said than done, but avoid falling into the trap where you prioritize the pursuit of money, recognition, and/or the path of least resistance. In my experience, that's what most people do, and not surprisingly, I only rarely find someone that is truly excited about their career over the long haul.
My classmates were so interesting. It was so neat to learn their stories, and spend time with them. I also thoroughly enjoyed the clinical observerships, and was something I wish I was able to do more of.
Moving to a new country with my wife and 1-year old son (and taking advantage of the travel opportunities afforded to us as a result), attending school full-time, trying to keep up with a career change, and somehow balancing it all. It was very challenging, but we'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.