Steinzeig, a KU School of Medicine graduate and retired cardiologist, established the Sherman M. and Alfred S. Steinzeig, MD, Memorial Scholarship to honor the connection he and his brother have to KU Medical Center. Carter is its first recipient.

Carter and Steinzeig met recently to discuss practicing medicine in Kansas, the high cost of becoming a doctor and the importance of giving back.

Peter Carter: As a third-year medical student, I think a lot about where I want to spend my residency. Like you, I grew up in Kansas and hope to practice medicine here. Did you have any student medical experiences outside the state?

Sherman Steinzeig: I went to Philadelphia for an internship in a city hospital. I expected to come back, too, so I thought it would be good to have a year away. My decision to come back was a good one.

Carter: What was that experience like?

Steinzeig: There were 12 interns in my class. They had all the qualities you want in a physician, but most of their training was academic. For example, they knew all about composius sarcoma, but they had never seen a patient with it or done anything in an emergency room. The first night I was on in the emergency room, a patient came in with full pulmonary adema, so we put the tourniquets on and gave the patient morphine and ananophiline. After five or ten minutes, the patient felt better, and my colleagues asked, “Where did you learn to do that?” I said I went to medical school at the University of Kansas. So I found my training was every bit as good and a great deal more practical than what the hotshots got in the East. You don’t have to go to Harvard or Yale to do something worthwhile in medicine.

My brother went through medical school in the Depression. If you think times are hard now, you have no idea what it was like then, but he was determined to be a physician. He was an in-state student and was able to live at home and come to KU. There are many people who have the same dedication, integrity and intelligence but are not able to do it financially. It’s difficult for a person of modest means — and I don’t mean the poverty level. It costs a huge sum of money to become a physician today. We were very lucky to be able to do what we did, and we have an obligation to help foster the development of medicine among people who don’t come from wealthy families. If your father is the chairman of AT&T, you don’t have a problem, but if you are like most of us, there isn’t that much cash lying around. I think tuition is up to about $20,000 a year, isn’t it?

Carter: Yes. I think a lot of students, including me, can easily take out 30, 40, 45 thousanddollars a year in loans.

Steinzeig: I think if we can help a little financially and, even more, if we can lend moral support and give you the feeling that someone is with you in this endeavor, we should do it. I would expect you to do it when you are able.

Carter: I definitely agree. One of the neatest things about this scholarship is knowing somebody cares about current medical students and the changes being made — that even though medicine is different now, you guys still support its ideals and want to help. I’m very, very grateful for every penny.

Steinzeig: We hope it will be helpful and inspire you to do better.

Carter: It does. When studying and after those many, many hours, I say, “Hey, well, Dr. Steinzeig helped me out, and I need to show him I am working my hardest.”

Steinzeig: You can also look at it another way: You can say, if an idiot like him did it, I can do it, too.

Carter: My parents helped me out with college, so I was fortunate enough to come into medical school with no undergraduate debt. I knew my parents wouldn’t be able to help me out with medical school, but I decided to bite the bullet and go anyway. Having this scholarship really relieved a lot of anxiety and stress about taking on all those loans and debt. Why did you decide to establish this scholarship and help people like me out?

Steinzeig: For the simple reason that a great deal of effort goes into supporting a medical student. The state, the community, the parents are all involved. If you have been the beneficiary of that support, don’t you owe something to the people who have supported you? Don’t you have an obligation to provide future doctors to the community?

Carter: Absolutely. I think I mentioned this in my thank-you letter to you, but when I was an undergrad I had the opportunity to raise money for St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. I think we had a thousand students across campus participating at some point. Listening to you just now, I was reminded of the feeling I got from being able to give. It’s incredible.

Steinzeig: Peter, at a young age, you have learned something it takes many people a long time to learn: It’s a hell of a lot better to give than receive. That’s where the fun is. Sometimes you have to receive. Nobody ever goes through medical school alone; you get help along the way. But the fun comes when you get to the place where you can be the helper. +