In honor of Mark Socinski, MD
Dr. Mark Socinski was born to be a physician.
“I see very little difference between what you might call my job and what you might call my life’s passion,” he says. “Every morning I wake up and can’t wait to start my day.”
Two sources fuel his drive: caring for patients and making their care better. So it’s not surprising that Dr. Socinski is more than just a little bit interested in research.
“We need to explore new ideas and approaches through clinical trials because our standard of care today has been defined by the clinical trials of the past,” he says. “So we need to continue this approach to make progress.”
Dr. Socinski of UNC’s Multidisciplinary Thoracic Oncology Program, first became interested in medicine as a child growing up in rural Vermont.
“We had a family doctor who was always there for us. He took his time, he listened and was sympathetic. He was really a great role model.”
Dr. Socinski studied zoology in college and entered medical school thinking he’d be a surgeon.
“But during the third year, when you begin to do your inpatient rotations, you are influenced by whatever patients you meet,” he says. When he met cancer patients, he knew immediately that he wanted to treat them and research how to make cancer therapies as good as possible.