Alum dives deep into medical data

If you’re a student who wants to attend medical school, here’s the deal: It’s not like you think it is.

That’s a point Dr. Charles Phillips wanted to get across when he sat down with a group of Honors College students at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. A 2007 UTC graduate with a bachelor’s degree in biology, he focused on the topic: “What it Takes to Become a Doctor at a Major Academic Medical Center.”

“One of the things I was hoping to convey to the students was, ‘Do you know what you’re getting into?’” says Phillips, a practicing physician in pediatric oncology.

He earned a medical degree from Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He now practices medicine and teaches at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.

During his conversation with the UTC students, which included a Q&A session, he talked about his path to becoming a doctor, a journey that began with his original goal of being a clinical researcher.

Frustration at not being able to find the data he needed for some research projects led to master’s degrees in health policy research and biomedical informatics. A selfdescribed “data junkie,” he dives deeply into the findings of medical and health-related research with the hope of finding new and more efficient treatments for diseases.

At UTC, he discussed the ups and downs of his career but said he didn’t want to make being a doctor seem like a complete horror.

“Despite the fact that it’s not perfect and it has some flaws,” he says, “at the same time it can be incredibly rewarding and a wonderful career.”