Hi, I'm Dr. Howard Levy, an internal medicine specialist at Johns Hopkins. Taking care of patients is my passion. In addition to teaching at the School of Medicine, I'm the clinical director of general internal medicine at Johns Hopkins at Green Spring Station.
In this blog, I'll cover a broad range of topics. My goal is to remove some of the mystery - and a few of the myths - surrounding common health concerns. I'll do this with a generous helping of fun and advice to help you achieve and maintain good health.
I decided during high school to become a geneticist, and my original plan was to work in a lab and develop gene therapy techniques to cure genetic diseases. But after finishing graduate school in human genetics, completing my medical training, and doing a genetics fellowship at the National Institutes of Health, I eventually figured out that I love taking care of patients the most. So, I changed my career path.
Now I spend most of my time providing routine medical care and preventive health services to adults, including many who have genetic conditions. Regardless of their specific health problem(s), though, my patients' family medical history (that is, their genetic background) remains an important part of the initial and ongoing medical evaluations.
I consider myself to be incredibly fortunate because I love my job. And now I'm looking forward to sharing my passion for health and well-being with you. I'll tell you what I think is important, what I think is fascinating and exciting, and some of what I find frustrating in medicine.
My blog will cover just about every body system and every type of disease, with plenty of attention to genetics and family history. I hope that this column takes some of the mystery out of medical care and helps you realize that by working as a team with your medical provider(s), you really can achieve optimum health. I hope you have as much fun reading my blog as I will have writing it!
