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Daniel Marchalik, MD, is Director of Ambulatory Urologic Surgery and Director of Medical Education at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. He is also a current MedStar Teaching Scholar. His interest in literature has helped him craft a depth of care that is unique in the field of surgery.
“The thing that interests me most in medicine is academics and teaching,” said Dr. Marchalik. He is the creator and director of the Literature and Medicine Track at the Georgetown University School of Medicine. Dr. Marchalik is the author of a monthly column in the Lancet for the past two years and in BMJ for the past year.
“Books allow you to take on the perspective of someone else, and that’s one of the most important things you can do in medicine,” Dr. Marchalik said. "There's a tremendous value in carefully listening to patients and taking the time to discuss values and preferences that are important to each individual. I spend a lot of time thinking and writing about books’ ability to help you take on patients’ perspectives and better understand the value of patient stories.”
Among his many articles, “We, the animals,” uses literature to open a conversation about the limits of scientific research. Meanwhile, his article “Kazuo Ishiguro's uncanny science” sparked a conversation with his students about the ethics of organ donation. All of these articles in Lancet and BMJ provoke the reader to think about medicine, education and research in a different light.
Dr. Marchalik completed his undergraduate studies at Rutgers University, where he graduated summa cum laude. He then stayed at Rutgers to receive his medical degree from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society Honor Medical Society. He completed his master’s degree in English Literature Masters at Georgetown University and his internship and residency training at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital.
