Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/662005
t m c ยป p u l s e | a p r i l 2 0 1 6 8 8 MARC L. BOOM, M.D., PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF HOUSTON METHODIST HOSPITAL, SAT DOWN WITH WILLIAM F. McKEON, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF STRATEGY AND OPERATING OFFICER OF THE TEXAS MEDICAL CENTER, TO DISCUSS THE ROLE HEALTHY COMPETITION PLAYS IN ADVANCING PATIENT CARE AND HOW MAINTAINING A CLINICAL PRACTICE PROVIDES HIM A UNIQUE PERSPECTIVE IN THE WORLD OF HOSPITAL ADMINISTRATION. SPOTLIGHT Q | Tell us about your early childhood. A | I was born in Englewood, New Jersey. My folks immigrated to the United States just before I was born, so I was the child of immigrants in northern New Jersey, and my father worked in Manhattan. Actually, at that point I think my father worked in Florham Park, New Jersey, for Exxon, if I remember correctly, and later in Manhattan. So they were both born in Belgium in the midst of WWII. Both very young, so they don't have big memories of the war, but my father has some vague memories of getting ushered into the house because a Canadian plane was in a dogfight with a German plane right over the neighborhood. It got shot down in his neighborhood. He remembers, as a four-year- old, seeing this stuff. And my mom's older brother, he's 86, so he was born in probably 1931 or '32, remembers it vividly. Q | Growing up, were you always interested in the sciences? I know you eventually ended up as a biology major at UT. A | Yes, I always liked the sciences. I was never much into English or other subjects, they were never my favorite. So I was very interested in science, and it's funny, people ask me when did I decide to go into medicine, and it's more just like an 'aha' moment, and I can't really tell you why. But it's more that I was just really fascinated by medicine. So by my junior year of high school, I was telling my parents that I wanted to be a doctor. Now, with an engineering father, and thinking it would be really cool, I decided I wanted to do biomedical engineering. I ended up at UT, which I was thrilled to go to. Q | So how did you meet your wife, Julie? A | We met as juniors in a pathophysiology class. She was from Dallas, I was from Houston. Sitting with two or three people in between us who we both knew, but we didn't know each other. We're talking a 200-person lecture hall with the long tables. And one of them said, 'Oh, have you met?' And we chatted on the way out, and it turned out her sorority and my fraternity were having a mixer/match that week, where on Tuesday night you have a cocktail party and the whole purpose is to find a date for the match, and then the match would have some theme on Saturday. Well, she had an exam the next day, and she came with one goal: to see if I would ask her out. And I went with one goal: to ask her out. She told her friends she would only stay for 30 minutes because she had to study. My wife was a good influence on me, studying-wise. So we met there and married four years later and now we are at 25 years with three wonderful children. Julie is a very