Josh Robinson '97 Continues His Medical Education
by Howard Hewitt
The Wabash experience is often called a lifetime of learning, though few exemplify the concept any better than Josh Robinson ’97. Robinson, a summa cum laude graduate in biology and English, is Chief Resident at the University of Chicago Children’s Hospital. He works daily with 60 residents while still seeing some hospital patients. Robinson grew up with his two brothers, Jeremy’04 and Ben ’01, in a household that appreciated education. They attended North Central High School in Indianapolis and their mother is a teacher.  "Education is something we learned to prize," Robinson said. "That is one of the reasons I was drawn to the University of Chicago. After I got there, I learned 75 percent of the undergraduates have a parent who has been in teaching."
The personable former soccer player left Wabash thinking about following in his mother’s footsteps. "I almost gave up on med school and thought I wanted to go to grad school and teach English. But now I’m giving back to the residents and even the med students. I see for my own patients that education is so central to health. It is nowhere more apparent than in children—the prospects of having a healthy life are really linked to education. You cannot separate those two." Josh’s youngest brother Jeremy is also in Chicago teaching in the Teach for America Program. "Jeremy has taught me a lot this year about how to be an effective teacher," Josh said. "Medicine is very different than grad school or post-secondary education. We aren’t taught to be teachers. Very few doctors are good teachers. So sometimes I try listening to him and his experiences." Robinson intends to pursue academic medicine. "I’m going to do a super-sub specialty training," he said. "I’m interested in pediatric cardiology. That requires a couple years of clinical training; most fellowships require you to do some meaningful research. It’s not school, it’s a job. It’s almost an apprenticeship." Robinson, who was married late last year, said his wife’s interests may guide him after the next three years of additional learning. "Jennifer is really interested in international medicine; she’s a physician too. She’s an internal medicine doctor and a pediatrician. The reason she went into medicine was because she was a teacher. She did the Teach for America proram and taught English in Tanzania. It was there she realized she really had a calling to go into medicine. "I think we’ll probably take some time to do some international medicine to give to a community that doesn’t have the resources we’re privileged to have here. Medicine started for her in Tanzania and I think it’s likely to take us back there." It’s a long way from Wabash College to Tanzania, but Robinson credits his Wabash experience as the necessary preparation for his continuing education. "I think Wabash gave me an opportunity that I wasn’t privileged to have, that wasn’t guaranteed for me to get a good education. I could not have paid for the Wabash education; they made that possible for me. But Wabash doesn't just value the bright students, or students with the financial means, but every student is important. "I took that attitude and went to an institution (Chicago) that doesn’t necessarily have that philosophy, and I try to treat everybody I have encountered with that attitude. So I think Wabash set me up to be an effective teacher in that way." Robinson also thinks beyond the traditional boundaries of a pre-med education when reflecting on his Wabash experience. He not only lettered in soccer, but was active in Delta Tau Delta, Student Senate, and Interfraternity Council. "I don’t think there is one best preparation for a physician," Robinson said. "I don’t think the best preparation is necessarily a strict science background. I believe having the ability to think and articulate your thoughts is just as important as being able to solve an equation. Having physicians who were and continue to be musicians and writers is really important. "A doctor could be an average scientist and be a fantastic physician. If a doctor doesn’t understand the barriers that patients might have to obtaining medication, understand the social context of that patient’s illness, it doesn’t matter whether you’re an effective scientist. "We need all types. We need people who’ll treat people." And supervising such people daily is a huge challenge. "These are highly motivated people who are looking at careers who are really on a wonderful trajectory. I’m attendant to 60 doctors’ needs and they have needs that aren’t always met because of the stresses of their jobs. They’re all underpaid, fatigued, and sleep deprived. I try to be the liaison between faculty and those residents." One of the biggest challenges worrying Robinson is the nation’s healthcare woes. "We have a humongous part of the population that is not insured, and even a larger part that is underinsured. We have to reconcile that with the fact we spend twice as much as any other country per capita on health care. "The toughest part of my day is I can see 50 patients, but there are 50 more that don’t have the chance to see me." Hewitt is Wabash College's Director of New Media and Web Editor.
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