Joel Schwab, MD, 1945-2013 In Memoriam
“He was genuinely interested in the students, and they were instantly won over by his combination of clinical expertise, devotion to his patients, communication skills and kindness.” Herbert T. Abelson, MD, George M. Eisenberg Professor Emeritus and former chair of pediatrics
Joel Schwab, MD, with Babatunde (Tunde) Yerokun, MD’13, on Match Day 2013. oel Schwab, MD, a pediatrician and mentor to students and medical residents, died on Friday, June 21, 2013, of metastatic gastric cancer. He was 67 years old. Schwab was a role model for thousands of medical students and pediatric residents at the University of Chicago’s Pritzker School of Medicine and at Comer Children’s Hospital. Many students made the choice to devote their lives and careers to taking care of children based in large part on his example. Schwab served on the medical school’s curriculum and admissions committees and on the Department of Pediatrics’ promotions, awards and education committees. He directed the pediatric clerkship, rounded daily with students and residents when he was on service, delivered 30 or more lectures a year, helped teach the clinical skills class for second-year students and led small-group sessions for third-year students. He also served as director of the medical student performance evaluation at Pritzker since 2011. For residents, he often led morning report, the noon resident conference and the monthly pediatric attending case conference. He was a fixture in the outpatient clinic, and he was one of the first people that students and colleagues would turn to for advice when faced with a difficult diagnosis. “He also helped us pick the best students and residents for 15 years,” said Daniel Johnson, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and section chief of academic pediatrics at the University of Chicago Medicine. “He was crucial to picking the right people and then making them into excellent doctors, not just brilliant technicians but also caring, sensitive, communicative healers.” “The secret of his success was no secret,” said David Gozal, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics and physician-in-chief at Comer Children’s Hospital. “He cared for children as if they were his own. As a result, he was automatically adopted by his patients’ families.” “When their children got sick, the faculty, especially the other pediatricians, brought them in to see him,” Johnson said. “Joel Schwab was the pediatrician’s pediatrician.” Schwab grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y. In 1967, he earned his BA in zoology from the University of Michigan, where he met his wife, Gail Stein. He received his MD from New York Medical College in 1971. He completed his pediatric residency at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Chicago and was an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern
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Joel Schwab, MD, examines a young patient. Colleagues called him “the pediatrician’s pediatrician.” University until 1986, when he came to the University of Chicago. Schwab’s mentoring brought him many awards. He was selected by the medical students for inclusion in their class composite photograph for 16 consecutive years, a coveted internal honor. In 1998, he received the Faculty Teaching Award and was voted Teacher of the Year by the pediatric residents. He received the Pritzker School of Medicine Outstanding Clinical Teaching Award and the Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award in 2006. In 2011 he received the Gold Humanism Award. Most recently, an award acknowledging a physician teacher for excellence in mentorship was established this year and named in honor of Schwab. He was selected to be its first recipient at the annual residents awards ceremony, held on the day he died. The Pritzker School of Medicine Class of 2013 chose him as the speaker for their graduation ceremony. At that event, his last public lecture, Schwab described how the profession had changed since he first became a doctor and encouraged the nascent physicians to sustain their commitment to medicine. “You do need to worry about costs, and you do need to read the latest journals, but do not forget that medicine is also an endeavor of the heart,” he told them. “At the same time you are learning about disease and diagnosis and treatment, you are also learning about illness, the patient and yourself. “Become an excellent role model,” he advised. “Understand the influence your behavior will have. ... Be polite. And never forget: The patient comes first and is always the most important person in the equation.” Schwab is survived by his wife, Gail; daughters, Laura and Lynn; son, David; five grandchildren; and his brother, Jay.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO MEDICINE AND BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES DIVISION
To make a contribution to the Joel Schwab Fund at the University of Chicago, please contact Ellen Clarke in Medicine & Biological Sciences Development, 1-773-834-2742 or eclarke@ mcdmail. uchicago.edu.