Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine University of Rochester Medical Center 601 Elmwood Avenue, Box 626 Rochester, NY 14642
FOCUS ON FACULTY LINDA SCHIFFHAUER, M.D. Her professional journey has taught Linda Schiffhauer, M.D., the importance of being surrounded by people who encourage and support you. This theme is one that Schiffhauer, who is our residency program director and member of the breast pathology faculty, has continued to pay forward throughout her career. In more ways than one, Schiffhauer has come full circle. She was born in New York City and moved to Rochester when her father retired from the Navy and took a civilian job with Xerox. She graduated from East High School and got her undergraduate biochemistry degree from the University of Rochester. While she left town for medical school at Albany Medical College, followed by residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and an early start to her career at Main Line Pathology Associates, all roads led back to Rochester when she was offered a faculty position—which she excitedly took—in 1999. Sometimes, she’ll even run into old classmates from East High School who are now doctors, too, walking the halls at Strong Memorial.
“It’s kind of neat to come back to your hometown and see those people that you knew back when you were young,” said Schiffhauer, with a laugh. Like many undergraduates interested in going into science, she considered whether to pursue research or medicine. “I ultimately decided on medicine because I wanted my science passion to have a direct impact on helping people,” she said. In medical school she gravitated toward surgery as a specialty, which had hands-on patient care aspects she found enjoyable. It wasn’t until her final year, when she wanted to take a less demanding elective after her surgery internship, that she says she saw the light and decided to switch gears from surgery to pathology. Why the switch? It had a lot to do with the people. One of her greatest mentors was Dr. Foster Scott (father of our own AP faculty member, Glynis Scott) who would meet with Schiffhauer and another med student at the end of each day to review microscopic slides of cases he had given them to decipher/interpret the diagnosis. “I liked that you could look at slides like a puzzle to solve. It was very intellectual and stimulating,” she reflects. She narrowed in on breast as a specialty, which coincided with the cloning of the BRCA1 gene in 1994. Continued on Page 5 URMC DEPARTMENT OF PATHOLOGY AND LABORATORY MEDICINE 6
