News : Dr. David Sheff\'s journey to Vinton and Virginia Gay

Dr. David Sheff

Dr. David Sheff’s path to Vinton and Virginia Gay Hospital and Clinics has been a winding one. He’s among a rare group of people simultaneously earning joint Ph.D. and MD degrees at the University of Iowa; his Ph.D. was in biochemistry. His career has included a research fellowship at Yale University, years as a researcher winning grants for basic research from sources like the National Institutes of Health, and launching a company to commercialize discoveries. Dr. Sheff returned to the Carver School of Medicine to complete his residency and boards after many years in the rarified world of cell biology research.

“There is a definite rush that comes from doing research and finding results matching your hypothesis,” shared Dr. Sheff, “and there has to be quite a rush because those moments arrive only after years of very carefully designed and executed experimentation.”

Dr. Sheff spoke of starting a biotech company while working in the lab of Ira Mellman at Yale University. It was a learning experience. “I spent two years with a few colleagues running a company which spun off from our lab to commercialize our research. There was pressure to suggest that we would find cures for almost any condition for which there were investors,” says Dr. Sheff, “and it didn’t feel genuine at all. I soon learned that corporate life wasn’t how I wanted to live.”

Dr. Sheff returned to Yale and to academic research. He and his family were living in a suburb of New Haven, Connecticut, a city Dr. Sheff characterized as having an alarmingly high crime rate.

“In the middle of that experience I remembered my medical school days in Iowa City,” Sheff said. “I arrived as a student in Iowa City in 1984 and became involved in community gardens, I got involved a little with local politics, and you could just walk about town and know people. You knew the shopkeeper, you knew the person in the restaurant with you, and you recognized people you met walking down the street. It’s a little bigger now and I miss some of the feeling of belonging that comes from being a part of a smaller town, but even with all the growth it’s nothing like New Haven, situated among other cities of millions stretching from Baltimore to Boston.”

Dr. Sheff went on to say, “I was looking for a sane place for me and my family so we moved back to Iowa City in 2003. I started a lab in the Department of Pharmacology. Like all academic research my lab was funded with Federal and Private grants. Research is a never-ending treadmill. As soon as you get a grant the first thing you do is to start applying for the next one.”

There were also changes in the kind of research projects that are funded. “At the same time the National Institutes of Health decided they were going to switch from very basic research to translational research; funding projects that might result in cures within 5 to 10 years,” Dr. Sheff said. “My area of research was intracellular trafficking. It is very basic research and it became harder and harder to get good funding. I felt worn down with years of applying for grants from an ever shrinking pool of funding. It was time for a change.”

“In my family, doctoring is kind of the ‘family business’ and I have both friends and family who do family medicine,” Dr. Sheff explained, “and they all seem to really enjoy what they do. They told me, and I have found it to be true: there’s no feeling quite like knowing you helped someone get through a difficult time in their lives. It brings great personal satisfaction.”

While for some people it may seem a little late in life to switch careers, Dr. Sheff says his long path to medicine helps him relate to people. “If a patient says they’ve hit hard times, I can say I’ve been there. Trouble raising your kids and worried sick? Been there. Going through a divorce? Been there too. I’ve remarried since that difficult experience and am very happy, so I can tell a patient in that situation that while it really, really hurts right now, there are better days to look forward to.”

Dr. Sheff shared this story illustrating how understanding and expertise can be brought together to help patients. “There was this wonderful kid I cared for. Actually, I knew her whole family. She got to age 17 and things were going pretty well, and then she’s pregnant. At 18 she has another child with the same young man, who was just 20. Suddenly she was in over her head, getting involved in drugs. She abandoned both the kids and their father. Suddenly he has sole responsibility for two young children, no home, no prospects. His job was at a fast food place where he worked hard but he couldn’t pay the bills.”

“With the help of social workers,” Sheff continues, “we rounded-up some resources for him. We helped him get a nice apartment in a nice part of town. We arranged for some emergency baby-sitting so he could go to interviews for a better paying job. And that’s what he did. He got himself a good job and quite quickly earned a promotion and a pay raise. We helped him get some proper day care so his children would be looked after while he was at work. Of course we did the medical stuff too, shots and check-ups, conversations about parenting.” And then with a smile he said, “it all came together.”

Dr. Sheff’s wife, Waltraud Maierhofer, is a Professor of German at the University of Iowa. She will continue teaching at the University. “I know I’m commuting for now but we’re committed to moving to Vinton”, Dr. Sheff said. “With the three kids in college we’re looking forward to building a home here that’s just for the two of us.”

“It seems sometimes”, mused Dr. Sheff, “as though my life has been a journey toward smaller and smaller communities, from the mega-city of the East Coast, to Iowa City, and now to Vinton. The places get smaller and life gets more emotionally satisfying.”

Patients interested in an appointment with Dr. Sheff should call the Vinton Family Medical Clinic at 472-6300.