Making a Difference with Dr. Bruce Rollman
Dr. Rollman is the UPMC Endowed Chair in General Internal Medicine, and Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, Biomedical Informatics, and Clinical and Translational Science at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Rollman completed his Medical school from Jefferson Medical College and Residency from the University of Maryland and a Fellowship in GIM from Johns Hopkins University. Dr. Rollman launched and directs the Center for Behavioral Health, Media and Technology at UPMC which provides an academic home for investigators and faculty pursuing efforts at the intersection of clinical medicine, health services research, and computer science. He in fact pioneered the use of electronic medical record system alerts to identify patients for enrollment into clinical trials at the time of the physician encounter, and has published over 100 scientific papers, including first-authored papers in the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association, and has multiple U.S. patents. Dr. Bruce Rollman is inspired by the belief that we have a duty, both inside and outside the medical field, to do what we can to help make the world a better place. It’s a big job, and while we may not be able to complete the work, we must be prepared and willing to start. With anecdotes from his career, he shares the importance of keeping an open mind, pursuing broad interests, being observant, and working with great teams as we seek to fulfil this greater purpose in our careers and our lives. Pearls of Wisdom: 1. Some of the best ideas can come from unexpected places. Keep an open mind, pursue broad interests, including interests outside of medicine. Be observant. 2. The world needs repairing, and we have an obligation to do our part, however small. We are not required to finish the job, but we have a duty to start and hope that someone picks up where we left off. 3. If we look for opportunities to fill a need in our community, we may be able to make a difference by applying the skills we have learned in research and medicine to other facets of life. 4. The most important thing in this early stage of a medical career is to build a solid foundation. It takes time, but with the right knowledge and credibility, we can be prepared to do almost anything. To read Dr. Rollman's article referencing Ernest Shackleton's expedition, please visit this link.