and demands great care from all who choose the path of discovering its secrets and helping their fellow humans through the challenges and joys of living to the fullest.

Life . . . and More Life

The day had been a long one for the young intern. He felt like he had responded to calls from every department in the hospital, and many of them, more than once. Now, on his way to help with another delivery in OB/GYN, he stopped only briefly to catch his breath, take a drink of water, and put on fresh scrubs. Shortly after he arrived, the new baby girl gulped for air, found herself wrapped in a blanket, and snuggled close to her mother. The intern smiled to himself and set out to see the next patient.

"Less than two hours after helping deliver that baby, I found myself at a CODE BLUE, counseling a family facing an end-of-life situation," says Isaac Kirstein, who was an intern-on-duty at Olympia Fields Regional Osteopathic Hospital. "It reminded me that our task as physicians is both incredibly huge and incredibly profound. We hold people's lives in our hands when they come into this world, when they leave, and at all stages in between, so it's very important that we care about what we do and that we get it right."

After his residency, Kirstein returned to his alma mater, Midwestern University's Chicago College of Medicine (CCOM), and continues the tradition of training physicians who care. Currently, he serves as CCOM's associate dean of postdoctoral education and director of medical education.

Our task as physicians is both incredibly huge and incredibly profound. We hold people's lives in our hands."
— Isaac Kirstein, D.O., FACOI, Downers Grove

Physicians Who Care

Training "future physicians who care" is Kirstein's passion. "That's why I love Midwestern and CCOM. It's a great team and everyone is dedicated to our students." In addition to teaching students and residents in internal medicine, Kirstein spends one day each week seeing hospitalized patients with students and residents at Saint James Hospital. "Directly caring for patients contributes greatly to my work in the classroom with students who want to be physicians. It helps me make sure we're all focused on the same goals."

As he works with students, Kirstein says the a-ha moments of learning happen all the time. "I know we're making progress when students realize that learning to listen is the key to patient care. In fact, I would say that 80 percent of physicians' work is listening to and caring about their patients. It takes a while, but when students really 'get' what it means to be a physician, they recognize the key to finding the best diagnosis for the patient wasn't the test they did or didn't order, it was the question they didn't ask and the answer they didn't get a chance to hear."

An Alumnus Comes 'Home'

After completing his own CCOM residency at Olympia Fields, Kirstein spent five years in private practice in Illinois and Virginia, acted as teaching attending physician at Resurrection Saint Joseph Hospital in Chicago (IL), and served as director of student medical education at Montgomery Regional Hospital in Blacksburg (VA).

When Kirstein returned to Midwestern University, he was amazed at its growth. "I saw an excellent medical school become a top-quality university," says Kirstein. "And that's why I'm here. Lots of places are 'making doctors,' but the profession also needs leaders. At MWU, we're creating leaders for our 21st century challenge — fixing our broken health care system. It's an honor to work with people who love the profession, who are concerned about quality, and who want to develop caring physicians. Midwestern University provides everything we need to do that every day."