Favorite medical movie/TV show: Well, I don't know about a
medical-related TV show, but I like "The West Wing" a lot. And my favorite
all-time movie is "When Harry Met Sally."
What was your primary motivation for becoming a doctor?
I wanted to make a contribution to society. I was an East Asian Studies major
in college and I thought I might want to work for the World Bank or in foreign
service but I was ultimately uncertain whether I would really be able to make a
contribution to society in that career.
What was your greatest moment as a doctor so far?
The response when I perform cataract surgery on someone with severe vision loss
and can help them is always amazing. And probably my most important career
moments were getting research funding from the NIH and being hired on as a
tenure-track professor at Johns Hopkins.
Do you have a hero?
My mentors Dr. Jane Tilsch and Dr. Harry Quigley, both of whom are in research.
Dr. Tilsch is a professor of international health and Dr. Quigley is chairman
of the Dana Center for Preventive Ophthalmology, and they're both just great.
Did medical school prepare you well for the profession?
Absolutely. I was incredibly well-prepared. The way we learned at Harvard
taught me to think critically and prepared me well not only to be a doctor but
to be in academia.
What is the hardest part of your job?
The constant time pressure is hard. It's difficult to balance teaching,
research, and clinical work and my family life.
Knowing what you know now, would you choose again to be a doctor?
