Transcript

Introduction and Sponsorship Announcement

[0:00] Today’s episode is being brought to you by Eagle Financial Group.
From fractional CIO to tax prep and everything in between, Eagle Financial Group can help.
Find them on the web at eaglefsg .com.

[0:15] Music.

Urgent Call for Dr. Cooke in the Operating Room

[0:21] Paging Dr. Cooke. Paging Dr. Cooke.
Dr. Cooke, you’re wanted in the OR. Dr. Cook, you’re wanted in the OR.

[0:28] Music.

Introduction to Prescription for Success podcast

[0:39] Welcome to the Prescription for Success podcast with your host, Dr. Randy Cook.

Introduction to Prescription for Success podcast

[0:53] Hello everyone and welcome to Prescription for Success. I’m Dr.
Randy Cook, your host for the podcast, which is a production of MD Coaches, providing leadership and executive coaching for physicians by physicians.
To overcome burnout, transition your career, develop as a leader or whatever your goal might be, visit MD Coaches on the web at mymdcoaches .com because you’re not in this alone.
And don’t forget that CME credit is available when you listen with us.
Just look for CMFI in the show notes to learn how.
Well, let me begin today by saying thank you so much for joining us on Rx for Success.

[1:35] It’s a little hard for me to believe that this is actually episode number 171 of our podcast.
And we’ve been bringing you these fascinating conversations with some of the most notable physicians in the country for four years now. In fact, we’ve even had a few international guests as well.
It has been a privilege for us, and we are so grateful for your support.
That said, we want to remind you that we’re always thinking of ways to make this show better, and with that in mind, we’re trying out a change in format with this episode, and we need your feedback as to what you like, what you don’t like, and any other suggestions about how we can create a better show for you.
So please, let us hear from you.

Dr. Robert Wolff’s book on his father’s fight for freedom

[2:26] Well, my guest today is Dr. Robert Wolff, the son of a Jewish physician who escaped persecution, first by the Nazis and later by the Communists, in Hungary in the mid -20th century.
He has a new book that tells the story of his father’s experience.
It’s entitled Not a Real Enemy, the true story of a Hungarian Jewish man’s fight for freedom. But before we get into the book, which is a story about the past, I want our listeners to hear Dr.
Wolf’s thoughts on the evolution of telemedicine and the effect that it’s having on contemporary medical practice.
As a radiologist, he’s had a front row seat as technology has shifted the status quo.
So let’s hear his thoughts on how technology has changed his world and ours.
As I look at your CV, it looks like you got into a number of positions around New England before you made the decision to return back home to Michigan.
You want to tell us a little bit about what that was like? Well, there was another hit.
I worked at Milford Hospital, Milford -Whitensville Regional Hospital.
It was a small hospital in suburban Massachusetts, central Madden, not far from Boston.

[3:44] And I loved the place. I was moonlighting there for almost two years before I finished my fellowship and the job market then was so tight that there were no jobs available and I didn’t know where to apply but they actually had an opening.
Somebody had left from that practice and also on a partnership track and moved elsewhere and they liked me, I guess, so they asked me to come on and stay on. So I did.

Partner status and contract non-renewal at the hospital

[4:10] It was wonderful. This was now heaven. I mean, I’m actually making a living. I’m doing it on my own.
I’ve learned as much, you know, as much as you’re going to know at that point in time, unless you’re a super, super subspecialist and you’re, you’re writing the books about it, you’re writing the articles and you’re going to all the meetings about it.
You’re, you’re, this is as much as you’re going to know in your specialty, even with taking CMEs, et cetera.
So I’m on top of the world. I’m doing GIs, reading CT scans, MRI.

[4:36] They need me there. I was doing the interventional, all the, the biopsies and the, and the drainages and the runoffs and just about anything that I was able to within the confines of a smaller hospital.
And then I made partner and then the next year they didn’t renew our contract.
So unfortunately, I guess there were issues from time to time that came up and this was the early stages of administrations not renewing contracts and things started to change a little bit.
So I fell victim to that. In the end, they did me a favor.
So I looked at the next four, at this point, the job market had improved.
So I looked at literally the four closest hospitals, northeast, south and west of that place.
Got interviews. Most of them had some kind of offer, but they were maybe a one -year offer, two -year offer, and no partnership tracks.
And I wasn’t ready for that. I’m not going to go through limbo again for another year or two and decide, have some practice or group decide that they don’t want me. So I was still looking for a partnership track.
And here we are in Michigan, where I applied to two different places.

Decision to move to Flint, Michigan for a new job opportunity

[5:40] One was in Flint, Michigan, Flint McLaren and their group, and the other was in Kalamazoo.
They were both wonderful jobs. They both made an offer. It was a very difficult decision, but I ended up in Flint because it was a little closer to the Detroit area, not the Kalamazoo is that far away. It was also close to my mom who was in Michigan.

[5:58] My dad had already passed away in 1997, unfortunately.
She was sort of alone in Michigan, so it was a double benefit to go there.
Now, I bought a nice home there. I brought my wife with me. We weren’t married yet.
We got married in 2001, but it was a good decision. and they did me a favor.
It was two years to partnership, so I’m starting all over again, but they gave me little bonuses like for call and weekends, and even as a non -partner, we got little bonuses as well at the end of the year.
So there was a little bit of incentive there, not just the money, but, and then I learned a whole new set of, so that’s a lesson too.
You don’t know, you finish college, you don’t know squat. You finish medical school, you don’t know squat. You finish your residency, you don’t know squat.
Then you get a job and you work four years at somewhere, and then you go elsewhere and you don’t know squat because I had to learn cardiac nuclear medicine, for example.
My interventional skills had to be tuned up because I had to do more procedures, especially for night call and weekends.
And I learned quite a bit. And it was a bigger medical center and more trauma.
And so you learn as you go and you learn from a whole different set of radiologists and referring clinicians too as well.

Transitioning back to Massachusetts after nine years in Flint

[7:06] So great experience. I was seven years there and I would have stayed, but I I promised my wife at the time that we would go back to Massachusetts, where she was from, to be with her mom and dad.
The plan was seven to 10 years, and we went back after nine years.
I told her she got a year off on good behavior.

Burnout and the Demands of Medical Practice

[7:26] That’s when burnout set in, actually, a little bit.
We can talk about burnout, too. This was 11 years of night call, weekends, triple call, MRI call.
It was a busy, busy place. It was tough reading stacks and stacks of playing films and CT scans and then MRIs all afternoon and in between doing interventional cases and you’re it.
And I managed to do it and by my fifth, sixth, seventh year, I got to be pretty good at it, pretty efficient, but it’s still hard.
And at that point, I wanted to slow down a little bit.
So not only did we move, but that was my first experience as a full -time in teleradiography.
So telemedicine literally was invented by the radiologist as far as some concern.
So that’s when I went part -time. I think you might be right about that.

[8:14] Yeah, now it’s trying to, it’s cross specialty, but obviously surgeons can’t do telemedicine and ER docs.
And I mean, I suppose pathologists could do it all at home, but there’s certain, I mean, of course you need procedures.
There’s a lot of procedure work and prepping specimens and things.
I’d have to ask them, but certainly primary care and with nurse practitioners and PAs, a lot of stuff is done.
And of course, with the COVID coming, telemedicine became more in vogue, but we’ve been doing it for a long time with call and weekends.
And even when you’re in the hospital, you might be getting cases from another site like the MRI center, which might have been separate, which it was in our case.
So, but yeah, so, and then, so I went part -time at 43 after doing 11 years of full -time, night call, weekends, interventional.

Transition to Part-time Work and the Evolution of Telemedicine

[9:00] I had a good job offer from a friend of mine who was a former partner of mine in Michigan.
And so I worked four years from home, working about 10 days a month, and it worked out pretty well for a while, so.
Well, that’s a very good story of how life changed for everybody in the field of medicine during those years, and I don’t think it made any difference what specialty you were in.

[9:27] Things just became different. The telemedicine phenomenon is the easiest, I think, to, look at and to point to as sort of a sea change for those of us that practice medicine, but it affected all of us.
And in your case, you know, you were in a specialty where it was not quite so difficult, I think, to make some adjustments because, in fact, you can look at images from just about anywhere.
But my goodness, it is definitely not the same landscape that it was back in the late 1980s when you were in medical school, is it?

Technological Advancements in Radiology and the Future of the Field

[10:07] No, it’s really changed. I mean, it’s the technology has completely evolved.
The radiology technology overall is involved with the telemedicine itself has to I used to carry around my first job we carried around this big clunker like these old Sony Trinitron hundred pound TVs with a with a bag that you would hold.
And the images would be sent by through a fax line. And it took so long just for head CT and CT would have 12 or 13 images.
And now reading MRIs and CT scans with the prior study, and we’re talking about hundreds to thousands of images that are flashed through in a matter of seconds.
It’s unbelievable how much it’s changed. Dr. Jay K. Harness, MD It is amazing. Dr. Tom Bilyeu It’s amazing.
So, but, yeah, so, but I was already adjusted. So when COVID came, for example, I was already working from home down here in Florida, out of Michigan, which I still do, and that wasn’t my last job.

[10:55] Things didn’t work out out of Michigan, and so we were back in Massachusetts by then, and I had to, they kind of cut my umbilical cord, I call it.
I don’t want to name the place, but that’s what they did. Cause I was working, I was reading out of Michigan and the referring clinicians did like a radiologist on site sometimes, not all the time, but they wanted somebody around for consults and reviewing cases.
And that’s actually where we’re heading ironically with the AI, there’s with the AI, radiologist is going to be hit with that as well.
People, CAT scans, I think, and ultrasounds and MRIs will be partially read by whatever it is, computer, computer and robots, but they’ll still need radiologists to do biopsies and probably mammography and of course, interventional procedures, things like that.

The Role of AI and the Changing Role of Radiologists

[11:38] But the radiologist role, they’re saying, is going to morph into being a consultant rather than just somebody reading cases all day. So that’s going to change for us too.

[11:48] I think we can all agree that the discipline of medical practice has not stopped evolving since its ancient beginnings.
And when we think about that evolution, we usually think about the science.

[12:02] Dr. Wolfe has some thoughts about some of the more human components of medical practice.
Well, what I would like to do now is shift us a little bit to what really fascinates me about your story.
I am aware that during much of this period, when you were getting your medical training and while you were a very busy practitioner as a radiologist, you were sitting on a set of documents that your father had put into your hands that contained a really profound story.
And I’m just going to stop right there and let you pick it up and tell us where the book came from.

The History and Escape of a Hungarian Jewish Man

[12:45] Okay, so the book that we released in October of 2022, almost a year ago, is called Not a Real Enemy, the True Story of a Hungarian Jewish Man’s Fight for Freedom.
And the history of the book goes back to the 1970s, where my mom and dad, they left Hungary after the Hungarian Revolution in 1956.
After surviving two wars, in my dad’s case, four different escapes, twice from Nazi Hungary, twice from Communist Hungary.
His third escape as a medical student, he made it all the way to the border of Austria, claimed that an x -ray machine needed repair.

[13:24] And was arguing with an armed Russian soldier and challenged him to check it out at the hospital, go ahead, go ahead and call them.
He was a good bluffer and he got through it, he got away with it, but dad returned back to the medical school in Budapest for fear of reprisal, for fear of getting caught and losing his medical career.
So that was his third escape. The first two were in forced labor camp.
They were slave laborers under Nazi Hungary.
And then finally, their last escape was after the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 with my mom.
Also a harrowing escape. The first time they tried to escape, they had to abort for different reasons.
A very harrowing, very arduous, but they finally made it through.

Surviving Wars and the Hungarian Revolution

[14:02] Before that, during the Hungarian Revolution, which not a lot of people, in fact, not a lot of people know about Hungarian history in general, unless you’re a dedicated historian, but compared to like France and England and Pearl Harbor and the fighting in Okinawa and Japan and on and on, relatively little known about Hungary and the Holocaust, et cetera.
So anyway, so they went through two wars. My dad had four escapes, countless pestilence.
He’d been sick in and out of illness, not being able to finish school because he was Jewish, not being able to get into medical school because he was Jewish.
Finally was able to get into medical school after World War II because so many people had been killed that Hungary is actually short of physicians. So there was a quota.
No more than 10 % of physicians can be Jewish, but he made the cut.
And so he got to go to medical school and became an OBGYN.

[14:50] My mom also went to medical school and that’s where they met.
And during the Hungarian Revolution, they were front liners.
My dad now had to double down as a trauma surgeon. So he was doing his OBGYN work and he was a trauma surgeon for two weeks.

[15:04] And that war, I call the Ukraine war, the Hungarian Revolution on steroids now because it’s going on and on and on, unfortunately.
But back then, the experts were comparing the wars where the United States was, we were apathetic or…
Or we just didn’t know the news, the media wasn’t out there, whatever the case may be, or maybe they were just afraid because our country has to protect our own people, instead of just going to war haphazardly, especially against the Soviet Union, which was at that point our biggest nemesis, unfortunately.
Needless to say, that war, 3 ,000 people died, countless refugees and injured, a lot of young kids, young adults, and my dad had to double down as a trauma surgeon, plus his OBGYN.
So for two weeks, he was literally sleepless and working and working and working.
And my mom, as a medical student at the time, ran the blood bank.
So they were both front liners in that war.

Starting a New Chapter: Family Journey Begins in the U.S.

[15:55] And after that it all was over and the dust had settled, they said enough was enough. So they took off.
So now that’s so flash forward to, he redid his residency in Boston.
My mom and dad before that met in 1957 when they came to the U .S.
She met, her dad met her, and he hadn’t seen my mom in 18 years.
And that was a difficult thing for her too, a very emotional thing.
They ended up in Providence, Rhode Island for a little period of time.
It was very stressful for them until my dad got accepted to do his residency at the BI.
So in the 70s, now they’re in Detroit and they’re established since my dad started his practice in my hometown in 1965.
So they were well into their practice. Things were going good for them finally.
And he wrote his autobiography.
It’s not just a memoir because it covers his parents and goes all the way back from World War I and his parents’ plight, all the way through what I just told you and all the stories, and there are many, many miracles, but they wrote the autobiography as though the events had occurred the previous day.
They were sharp, they were intelligent, they were accurate, and so they did from pencil and paper to typewriter to computer.
And it was printed up, and I did get a chance to read the manuscript once, who knows, maybe 30 years ago.

Writing the Autobiography: Recollection and Verification

[17:12] I can’t even remember, but I didn’t think much of it at the time. I’m just a kid.
I’m trying to, I’m doing my radiology. I’m trying to do my career and family.

[17:20] And so I didn’t think much of it at the time.
So they were writing, and I apologize for the interruption, but I just want to make sure that I got this correct.
This would have been in the 70s, I guess, if they were actually putting the autobiography together. there, but were they, was it pretty much from their own recollection or did they have documents that they had managed to carry around?
Their own recollection, but they knew the history. They described the history.
We did have a lot of the history verified by other historians too, down the road after we finally had the final copy of the book, so we want to make sure that was accurate.
But to the best of their knowledge, they used their history, they knew the history of their family, and they literally wrote the stories as though they had happened the previous day. They were so clear, I mean, the way the table was set, and the smells outside, and the cold, and the running scenes.
It was just written as though it happened the day before.
Very accurate, very believable, very poignant, and very riveting, you know.
So that was in the 70s. And then flash forward, so I didn’t think much of it, like I said.
One thing I remember was this very first escape, but most of the rest of it I had forgotten, or maybe I didn’t read till the very end.

[18:29] But flash forward, 1997, my dad passed away, unfortunately, after, and he would have worked till the day he died. He loved OBGYN.
He delivered over 10 ,000 babies in the Detroit area. That’s called redemption.
Literally, it was a 24 -year career which could have been a 30 or 35 -year career.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Eagle Financial Group.
Eagle Financial Group is here to help you understand your numbers and to make wise decisions.
Whether it’s fractional CFO services, accounting, bookkeeping, payroll, or tax strategies and preparation, Eagle Financial Group is your partner to ensure that your practice keeps on serving your patients and gives you more time to spend with your family and friends.
It’s time that you overcome your obstacles and get control of your financial life today.
Give Eagle Financial Group a call at 719 -755 -0043, drop us an email at clientservicesateaglefsg .com or visit us online at eaglefsg .com.
We are a proud sponsor of the MD Coaches family of podcasts.

Dr. Robert Wolfe on Personal Prescriptions for Success

[19:50] Dr. Robert Wolfe, it has been a pleasure talking with you today, and at this point, I’ll turn the mic entirely over to you while you share your personal prescriptions for success.
Well, I’m supposed to only have three, but I’ve got about 50.
My career itself has been sometimes tortuous and sometimes arduous, but I’ve fought through it.
And when I read my dad’s story, it puts it all into perspective.
So one thing I’ve got to tell young students in that don’t don’t give up, don’t get discouraged, realize how good we have it in this country, realize that if you go into medical school and you get to become a physician that it’s a privilege.
There will feel days that it’s a chore, I’ve felt days that there’s been assembly line radiology, I used to call it, but to realize there’s a patient on the other end of that x -ray, there’s a patient on the other end of that blood sample or under your scalpel and they’re suffering more than you are.
We used to say great case when whereas we should have been saying interesting case but realize that somebody is suffering there’s somebody’s unfortunate enough to to have that disease.
For the youngsters apply go into with an open mind apply to a lot of places college medical.

[21:04] Residency have an open mind about what you want to do realize that there is no substitute for experience I can’t say that enough times you graduate at this point and this point and you really don’t know anything until you’ve got some experience under your belt.
The other important thing is to be a team player. I think that goes a long way.
This book especially so, but when you’re in the wards, the clinics, radiology practice, whatever it happens to be, being a team player is important.
So and just appreciate what we have in this country and also don’t just focus on medicine. I mean have a life outside of medicine.
I see a lot of doctors that that’s all they do or they’re interested in and Life is short and that’s another important message is that we talk about commodities, gold, silver, real estate, semiconductors, whatever, but time is our best commodity. In fact, time is our only commodity.
So use it wisely and appreciate your time.
Don’t try, I hate wasted time. And that’s another thing, if you can avoid wasting time, yet still enjoy your work, enjoy your time off, enjoy your family.
We’ve all heard the God, family, country thing. And for me, career and money, it’s in the list, but it’s a little farther down.

Life Outside of Medicine and the Importance of Time

[22:15] The money will come, you would do okay with the money. Don’t be greedy.
Save and invest, invest early and often so that your money works for you, so that you can have choices later.
And if you get burnt out or if you don’t like what you’re doing, you can go part -time, you can pivot, you could do something else, write a play, write a poem, write an opera, travel, spend more time with the kids, the grandkids, go to a rock concert, go to an opera, go for a walk, go to the gym.
There’s other things to do besides medicine and there’s more than just food, shelter, and clothing.
Unfortunately for some, that’s all they have, but for us, for people that work hard and get educated, there’s a lot more to life than just the basics.

[22:58] And what else? That’s kind of, so, oh, give back to society too.
I think that’s important.
Give back to the community. So for me, I guess this book is one thing, but also give back to charities are a big thing, whatever, or volunteer somewhere, or work for a function, a charitable event, or something like that, a fundraiser.

[23:21] Do something more than just medicine. and we don’t go into medical school to quit. We don’t go into medical school for a five -year career.
Some do, some don’t. I’ve seen people quit the first day of medical school and the first day of wards.
It just wasn’t for them. At least they made that decision early.
But if you do decide that you’re not crazy about what you’re doing, you go part -time, change the vector.
It’s never too late. Life is short. Enjoy it. Enjoy what we have in this country, in the free world. I hope a lot of people read this book and they get the many, many messages, determination, integrity, redemption, hope.
It just goes on and on. You can’t help but realize what the messages are and carry them forward in your own life, like my dad did.
He was so jovial and jolly when he went to work, smiling and loving what he did. You would never know what he went through.

[24:10] And that’s the thing. Sometimes it’s hard to know when we go through a hard time, but I’ve got a million others, but those are the ones I thought of off the top of my head to just be motivated and do your best and things will come out okay.
Well, Rob, thank you so much for sharing your story with us and for sharing your prescriptions with us.
It has really been an interesting conversation. I can’t wait to get into the book.
As I had mentioned before, before we go, I want to give you an opportunity to tell us where they can find your book and where they can find you if you’d like to be contacted.
I appreciate that. Well, I have to do a quick shout out to Amsterdam Publishers who took us on literally bottom on the ninth shoestring catch, and thanks to the querying process with Janice.
The book is called Not a Real Enemy, the true story of a Hungarian Jewish man’s fight for freedom.
If you Google Not a Real Enemy or if you Google Robert J. Wolfe, MD, you’ll find it. We’re up there.

[25:07] And my website is robertjwolfemd .com.
I have a YouTube channel, Robert J. Wolfe, MD. I’ve done like 17 TV interviews, I don’t know how many podcasts, and hopefully a lot more, keep the message going, but the book is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart, you can buy it at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC, you can buy it at the Illinois Holocaust Museum and Education Center, and hopefully over time a lot more places, but it’s easy to find and if you’re at a Barnes & Noble, go in and ask about the book.
If they don’t have it, they can order it for you and ship it to your house as well.
So Amazon’s the easiest, but all of those pathways are perfectly viable, and I hope a lot people read the book, and the important thing is spread the word, educate yourselves, and educate your children and your grandchildren.
That’s what counts. Let’s not forget about this war. Let’s not forget about harrowing times.
Dr. Robert Wolf, thank you for sharing your story and thank you for being on Prescriptions for Success.
Randy, I appreciate it. I appreciate your time and everybody else who’s helped out with this process. Thank you so much.

[26:12] Thank you so much for listening with us today. Remember, we want to hear from you about the change in format today, so please let us know if you like it, if you don’t like it, and especially if you have other suggestions to help us get better.
Please leave us a rating and a review, especially on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, or just leave us an email or a voicemail through Speakpipe at www .rx4successpodcast .com.
You can also help by becoming a Patreon member.
Look for that link in the show notes.
And we hope you’ll also follow our companion podcast, Life -Changing Moments with Dr. Dale Waxman.
Special thanks to our producer, Craig Clausen, our promotions manager, Marianna Rodabaugh, and to Ryan Jones, who created and performs our theme music.
And remember, be sure to fill your prescription for success with my next episode.

[27:11] Music.

Sponsorship Announcement: Eagle Financial Group

[27:18] Today’s episode was brought to you by Eagle Financial Group.
From fractional CIO to tax prep, and everything in between, Eagle Financial Group can help.
Find them on the web at eaglefsg .com.