Erin Sullivan DeMartino, MD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota
1. Three statements about you – two true, one false.
A physician who interviewed me for medical school was present at my birth.
I speak German, French, Italian and Spanish.
I once ended up in the back of a NYC police car.
2. Give us your ‘elevator pitch’ biography.
I grew up in a small town in coastal Maine, the daughter of a neurologist, who inspired an interest in “medical mysteries” in me and my brother (also a physician). I steered clear of the science quad at Williams College, majoring in Art History and English then teaching in international schools and working in museums for several years before meandering back to premedical studies at Bryn Mawr. I spent 7 happy years in the Upper Connecticut River Valley, completing medical school and residency at Dartmouth. My husband and I then moved to Minnesota, where I completed fellowship at Mayo Clinic then joined the faculty. We are enjoying raising our two young children in Minnesota, where they are picking up the local accent (“beeeg” instead of “bag,” “ruff” instead of “roof”).
3. What would you tell yourself as an Early Career Professional?
Pay attention to what bothers you and engage your energy and creativity to try to solve it. This plays into my lifelong mantra of trying to leave each place I have been better than I found it.
4. If you weren’t in medicine, and were in a different industry altogether, what would you be?
Plan A was to have become an art historian and work at a museum. I was particularly taken by early medieval art. Or perhaps something in the hospitality industry – I’m pretty serious about food.
5. What is your favorite way to spend a day off?
Hands down, spending it with our kids. Maybe taking them to the pool or the library, then taking a nap (we are a napping house), then playing outside and having a low-key dinner as a family.
6. What areas of medicine are you most excited to see develop?
As an ethicist, I am watching our field adopt and adapt to artificial intelligence with great interest and some trepidation (if this piques your interest, ECOI will be hosting a mini-symposium on the ethics of AI in Orlando).
7. What is one advancement in your field you’d like to see in your career?
I spend much of my time studying how health policy and ethics intersect at the bedside of critically ill patients, particularly from marginalized communities. Through research and advocacy, I’m hoping to catalyze policy change to improve the care of hospitalized patients who are experiencing incarceration.
8. Which statement (in question #1) was false?
I wish I could honestly claim to speak 4 languages. I have attempted to learn all 4 of those languages, having lived in France, Italy, Germany and Spain during and after college. Unfortunately, they’ve jumbled together in my brain. A member of Dartmouth’s admissions committee was a medical student on his OB rotation when my mother went into labor. My father (who had been his resident on a previous rotation) consented to have him attend my birth. That’s not a conflict of interest, is it?!?! And I once attempted to take the NYC subway to the Cloisters but got off on the wrong stop. I found a police officer and asked for directions, and he ended up driving me, dropping me off at the front of the museum.
Dr. DeMartino is Chair of the Ethics and Conflict of Interest Committee for ATS and a member of the Council of ATS.