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Professionals Featured Resources » Become a Member About the AAAAI Careers in A/I New Research from the JACI Allergy, Asthma & Immunology Education and Research Trust (ART) Resources for You Resources for Your Patients AAAAI Assemblies » Professionals Contact Medical Students Medical Residents Fellows-in-Training Training Programs Referral Guidelines Allergy/Asthma Medication Guide ST*AR Program Pediatric Asthma Guide Quality of Life Resources Pierson Program Breakthroughs in Bioscience AAAAI Assembly overview Allied Health Federation of the RSLAAI Societies International Military Allergy New Allergist/Immunologist Assembly Program Directors		Careers in A/I for Medical Students: FAQ Profiles of Allergists - Richard L Wasserman, MD, PhD Experienced allergist finds personal reward through treating patients As a freshman medical student at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Richard L. Wasserman, M.D., Ph.D., felt all the traditional pressures new medical students face: exhaustion, excitement and uncertainty about the future. But a sign in a university elevator proved to be the writing on the wall for his future. "When I was in medical school, I was preoccupied with my regular course work until I stepped into this elevator one day," Wasserman said. "There was this poster staring at me and the title of the talk was the first one that I could understand since I had started medical school-it was all about allergy and immunology. As a first-year student just beginning to learn the language of medicine, so much is still beyond understanding, but that title jumped out at me. I went to the speaker, asked if I should go, and he said he gave a great lecture, so I went. And that speaker, Dr. J. Donald Capra, eventually supervised me during my Ph.D. studies and became my mentor." After that fateful elevator ride, Wasserman plunged headfirst into A/I and never looked back. He is now an active clinician and Director of the Immunology Clinic at Children's Medical Center in Dallas, Medical Director of Pediatric Allergy/Immunology at North Texas Children's Hospital, Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, and a founding board member of the Dallas Asthma Consortium. Medicine combines biology, people The opportunity to help ease others' suffering in any way possible helped cement Wasserman's decision to become a doctor, and eventually a pediatrician in A/I. "I was always interested in anything having to do with biology and people, and medicine was the best combination of that. I was just fascinated by how living things functioned and what they could do," Wasserman said. "I was also captured by the notion of being able to help people in their suffering, and then understand how things worked when they worked right, and even when they didn't." Wasserman furthered his studies as a pediatric resident at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and later as a postdoctoral fellow in bone marrow, transplantation and immunology there. He later served as a research associate in immunology and rheumatology at The Rockefeller University in New York. Work with kids provides challenge A lecture about allergy/immunology may have initially attracted Wasserman to the field, but it was the young faces of patients asking for a normal, healthy childhood that kept him focused on the specialty. He found work with children to be intriguing and professionally fulfilling, especially in A/I. While other doctors may encounter a "communication barrier" in pediatrics, Wasserman rose to the challenge. "I like dealing with kids because it presents a challenge of making the diagnosis and really knowing and understanding how diseases manifest themselves," he said. "You can get valuable history if you really listen to the parents and hear the nuances in what they are saying. It's all about establishing communication." Wasserman said serving on the "front lines" as a clinician provides a unique way to make a difference. "Children don't know the difference between the way they feel and the way they should feel," he said. "When I got glasses as a child, I learned the world had sharp edges and that it wasn't always fuzzy. And children do become accustomed to sniffing, wheezing or snoring and many times it's a revelation for them to come back after a month of asthma treatment and see how much their life has improved. There is nothing more rewarding than showing someone you can make them better." Education essential in expanding awareness Clinicians also provide one of the most important goals in fighting asthma and other allergic diseases: education. As Chair of the Academy's Public Education Committee, Wasserman knows first-hand of the importance of public education. The AAAAI's many public outreach initiatives, such as the Tips to Remember brochure series, help to expand awareness of allergic disease in today's patient population, he said. While the mission to improve asthma awareness and public education falls on the shoulders' of the entire specialty, it is the clinician who has the opportunity to directly heal, and ultimately improve a patient's quality of life, Wasserman said. "Every day I strive to simply remember that the word 'patient' is derived from a Greek word meaning 'to suffer,' and we all need to work to eliminate that suffering," he said. "I love to come into that examining room and see a family for the second time and have a mother say, 'You've given me my child back.' There is no greater reward than that." <back>
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