075: Chasing my Cure with Dr. David Fajgenbaum MD, MBA, MSc

Dr. David Fajgenbaum MD, MBA, MSc

* Physician Scientist

* Assistant Professor of Medicine

* Executive Director of the Castleman disease Collaborative Network

* Undergrad: Georgetown University

* Grad School: University of Oxford

* Business School: Wharton Business School

* Medical School: Perelman School of Medicine

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Description:

Dr. Fajgenbaum is the Cofounder and executive director of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network and an NIH funded Physician Scientist. He is not only one of the world’s leading experts on Castleman’s Disease devoting his life to discovering new treatments for rare disease; he is a patient and survivor of idiopathic multicentric Castleman’s Disease. He is the founder of the AMF and the cofounder of the National Grief Support Network. He received his BS magna cum lauda with honors from Georgetown University where he was a division 1 college football quarterback, he has a MSc from the University of Oxford, completed medical school at the University of Pennsylvania and has an MBA from Wharton School of Business. He was one of the youngest appointed faculty at Perelman School of Medicine and was one of the youngest awardees of an RO1 NIH research grant. He was been on Forbes 30 under 30, he is an elected fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, he has been listed as one of the top physicians leaders and has been honored with prestigious awards such as the Atlas Award for the World Affairs and the Hope Science Award. Dr. Fajgenbaum is the author of his memoir titled: “Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into Action” and a true patient advocate.

Dr. Fajgenbaum’s story is one of hope and one of suffering. In this episode, we dive deep discussing his path to medicine, how he used the grief of losing his mother to brain cancer when he was in college for good, why he had to learn first-hand of the shortcomings of the medical profession, and why he wakes up every day committed to advancing our understanding and available therapeutics for rare diseases like Castleman’s disease.

Surviving Medicine:

Dear MedStudents: This month we launched our December editorials with the topic Dear MedStudent. We have had some great articles by Anya Bazzell about Survival in Medical school, by Jeremy Scott about Holding on to who you are, and by Abigail Felsted about Staying positive through the trials of medical school. Links to their articles can be found in our show notes. If you have a topic you want to write about, send our managing editor an email at [email protected].

Sponsors:

OCB Healthcare Accounting:

This episode is brought to you by OCB Healthcare Accounting, an all in one accounting firm for small healthcare businesses and private practices. One thing that we love about OCB is they are QuickBook professionals with healthcare experience,