- I always knew I wanted to be a doctor.
There was never time in my life
that it was a question in my mind.
I was raised in a medical family.
My father was a surgeon.
My mother was a nurse.
And so, I was in that environment
from the very beginning.
I began going to the hospitals with my dad
when I was in middle school.
- I became a doctor because my dad was a doctor.
And he enjoyed taking care of patients.
I can remember as a kid patients calling our phone,
our home phone, asking him questions,
and he enjoyed taking care of patients
and I wanted to have as much fun as he did.
I wanted to be able to develop
those relationships and care for people.
- The reason I became a physician
was it's the only thing I've ever wanted to do.
I like helping people.
I love science and the art of interacting with people
to make a difference in their lives.
- I was really just fascinated
with biology and medicine,
so I think the first thing that attracted me
was just the science of medicine.
And then as I got further into it,
it was really more patient care that,
and the relationships with the patient,
that has, I guess, kept me going all these years.
- I knew I wanted to become a physician
when I saw the compassion and the care
that my father, who was a physician himself,
provided for the patients that he took care of.
- I became a physician because I wanted
to use what I've been given.
I was fortunate to have parents that sacrificed,
grand parents that sacrificed
after they came to this country
and I felt I'd been given an opportunity.
So, wanting to use all that had gone before
I decided to use it to help people with their health.
- My parents, as immigrants,
really put a strong emphasis on education.
Being the first in my family to go into medicine et cetera,
all these things sort of became goals for me.
Medicine seemed to be able to allow me
to sort of use all my strengths.
And eventually was able to achieve it.
- The classic answer, you know I wanted to help people.
It's really more complicated than that.
I don't know that there's anything
quite as sophisticated or elegant
as studying human behavior,
human medicine, or the biological behavior
of human beings is remarkable.
(soft piano music)