Portrait of a Transplant Professional
Donald Hricik, M.D.
Medical Director, Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programs at UHCMC
Chief, Division of Nephrology and Hypertension UCMC
Professor of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University
Dr. Hricik completed his training in 1982 and has since been on the faculty at CWRU for the past 29 years. He is a graduate of Chanel High School in Bedford, Ohio, and a college graduate from the University of Notre Dame. He then graduated from medical school at Georgetown University and completed his Internship and Residency fellowship training at Tufts New England Medical Center. He is currently, the Director of the Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programs at UHCMC, Chief of the Division of Nephrology and Hypertension at UCMC, and he is a Professor of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University.
His career in transplantation was “almost accidental”. In the mid 1980’s, when Cyclosporine hit the scene, UNOS was established and transplant centers were being formed on a formal basis. In 1985, Dr. James Schulak came to UH and he announced that he needed a single nephrologist to serve as Medical Director. Everyone, except Dr. Hricik, took a step backwards and it ended up being the best accident he’s ever experienced. He learned on-the-job and was grandfathered into the relatively new field of transplant nephrology and he has been on a wonderful ride since.
In response to what he likes best about his profession, he replied that he likes the day-to-day, week-to-week, and month-to-month variation in what he does in his work. Sometimes his focus is on patient care, other times on research, and then on administrative issues. The mix is different every day and there is no typical work day for him. Traveling and presenting talks or research data adds to the variation and is enjoyable to him. The common thread for Dr. Hricik is the care of patients and more than anything, he still likes taking care of patients. He also enjoys clinical research, especially when the analysis of data produces some new finding that actually contributes to new knowledge. Writing and publishing papers describing such data is the “icing on the cake” and the real fun is knowing that a hypothesis has been proven. A related joy has been the mentoring of trainees and junior faculty. The most challenging aspect of his position is dealing with increasing regulations that influence the practice of medicine.
When asked what he would say to a person entering his profession today, he said that the field of nephrology faces the growing challenge of a growing patient population and an inadequate work force to care for the patients. There are many opportunities to focus on CKD, dialysis, transplantation, and basic research. Transplant nephrology is appealing because of the complexity of the patients and the generally excellent outcomes, for which patients are very appreciative. He feels there is still room for improvement in patient outcomes and thus, there are many problems that can form the basis for rich careers in clinical research.
Dr. Hricik has received several special honors and awards that include Phi Beta Kappa, Alpha Omega Alpha, and the Kober Medal as Valedictorian at Georgetown in 1977. He was the UH Teacher of the Year in 1983 and in 2008, he received the Kidney Foundation Man of the Year award. When asked what his goals are, he replied that he wants to leave a legacy of having contributed to the development of an outstanding Cleveland consortium of nephrology centers at University Hospitals of Cleveland, the Veterans Administration, and MetroHealth Medical Center that will be recognized nationally for outstanding clinical science, basic science, and patient care.
On a personal note, he has been married to his wife, Lynne, for 33 years and they have 4 adult children aged 22 to 32. He and Lynne love to travel, including the entire spectrum from big cities to tropical islands. He enjoys painting, mostly oil, but also water color and acrylics. He has done some creative writing and has published a novel, entitled "Racing to Pittsburgh", which is a fiction based on the true story of one of his sons, who developed acute myelogenous leukemia at the age of 11 and is now a 17-year survivor. He is contributing proceeds from this book to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (the book can be purchased on www.amazon.com). Dr. Hricik recently finished a second novel that he hopes to have published in 2012.
