Interview of Duke University Health system Chancellor Dr. Dzau(1)

2007-02-14 17:07:18 Xing Zong[ Big Normal Small ]

　　
　　

　　About Dr. Dzau:
　　Victor J. Dzau, MD, was appointed Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University and President and CEO of the Duke University Health System effective July 1, 2004. He is also James B. Duke Professor of Medicine and Director of Molecular and Genomic Vascular Biology at Duke.
　　Most recently, Dr. Dzau was the Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic (Medicine) at Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Physician-in-Chief and Director of Research at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Prior to his work at Harvard and Brigham and Women's, he served as Arthur Bloomfield Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Stanford.
　　The recipient of many awards and honors, Dr. Dzau received the first Hatter Award from the Medical Research Council of South Africa in 2000. He was awarded the prestigious Gustav Nylin Medal by the Swedish Royal College of Medicine and the Swedish Cardiology Society, the Novartis Award for Hypertension Research by the American Heart Association (which also named him one of its Distinguished Scientists for 2004), the 2004 Max Delbruck Medal by the Max Delbruck Center for Molecular Medicine, Berlin, Germany, the 2005 Golden Door Award by the International Institute of Boston, and a 2005 Ellis Island Medal of Honor by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations.

　　Z: Good afternoon, Chancellor Dzau. Thanks for squeezing time to talk with me. I know that your early years provided you with tough experiences. In the Chinese language, we often say “adversity is wealth”, how do you view this?

　　D: The important thing is that those times were really about poverty. From mainland China to Hong Kong, there were a lot of disparities, and a lot of illnesses. My grandparents, I think, all of them had TB. My grandmother died of tuberculosis. Actually I should take a step back. On my mother’s side, my grandfather had 3 wives. He died of stroke. His second wife died of stroke. On my father’s side, my grandfather also died of stroke. As children, of course, we were exposed to a lot of illnesses. Nowadays treatment is much improved. That drove me to think of becoming a physician, becoming a doctor. I want to be able to help people who are sick and who are poor. So those are the influences that my early years gave me.

　　Z: I guess that experience attributed to your choice to become a medical doctor.

　　D: That’s right, probably when I was in high school.

　　Z: Medical science now is so big. Even a small subject contains many branches. Why in particular in Cardiovascular disease?

　　D: First of all, when I did my training in medicine at Harvard, I had seen a lot of cardiologists who were my role models. For example, the chair of my department. Many of these role models were outstanding cardiologists. You get influence by your role models. Recently vascular disease is the No.1 killer in the western world. That field is much more advanced in terms of mechanism of physiology. I became interested in connecting the science with the clinical applications. So that’s why I chose cardiology.
　　
　　When I went to Cardiology, the head of cardiology at Massachusetts General Hospital said to me, I would accept you only if you do research, because it is very important to carry research as part of your training. So actually I did one year post doc fellowship at Harvard Medical Physiology. That’s how I discovered research.

　　Z: It’s often said that science is a matter of studying, waiting, careful observation; I am sure you will agree that “persistence and strong will” are two other indispensable ingredients. Here is the issue I would like you to address: What makes a great researcher?