Like most premeds and med students, our guest today, David Eisenberg, is a very busy person. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with a BS in neuroscience, took a gap year, which we’ll learn more about, and then began medical school at The Commonwealth Medical College where he is now an M3. Along the way, which is why I said he is so busy, he did research on Parkinson’s Disease, became an EMT, volunteered in Ghana, and has written for various pre-med and med sites. Welcome, David!

Can you tell us a bit about yourself? [1:20]

I grew up in a suburb of Philadelphia. I was always into science, the earth, rockets. I also loved sports. I went to U Pittsburgh for college, where I was involved with water polo and became an EMT. That’s where I started to feel out my interest in medicine.

How did you become interested in medicine? Was it something you’d wanted to do since you were a kid, or did you decide based on your experiences in college? [2:15 ]

It developed over time. I was always interested in science, but I wasn’t sure of what I might do. I thought I might be a researcher. My EMT certification really drew me to the clinical side of medicine – that was one of the turning points. But science had always been on my mind.

Any other formative experiences? [3:10]

I worked in a research lab in college, studying mutations linked to Parkinson’s. It was exciting, but I was much more drawn to the patient interactions during my EMT experience.

How did you choose Commonwealth Medical College? [4:05]

It’s really focused on community medical education, and that appealed to me, along with the opportunity to get to know doctors one-on-one.

What do you like about it now that you’re there? [4:55]

The fact that they really listen to the students. To give one example, it was recently bought out by a large health center in the area, and they sent out a student survey to get our recommendation on the name for the medical center.

Anything you would change? [6:03 ]

More related to the medical education side, I would like to see schools adopt more new technologies/modalities for teaching, and see it more standardized school to school.

You’re in your third year – how have you found your rotations so far? [7:45]

Great and difficult at the same time. You’re constantly adapting to different personalities and situations, getting into the crux of medicine: we’re not working with machines, we’re working with people.

I’ve really enjoyed getting to work with patients – it’s really exciting, and it’s rewarding to see people improve.

I’ve also realized how much I still have left to learn.

Which rotations have you done so far? [14:18]

Because of the way my school structures rotations (with a shortened block rotation in the first semester and partial days in the second), I’ve already done almost all my rotations. I think the only one I haven’t completed is pediatrics.

I’ve done internal medicine, cardiology, OB/GYN, psychiatry, surgery, and anesthesia.

Which rotation did you like best? [15:15]

My favorite is psychiatry. It felt very down-to-earth and real to me.

I enjoyed the others – learning the problem. But the excitement for me wasn’t as much figuring out the disease process as helping the healing. So I gravitated towards psychiatry – you never know what is coming each day.