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David Steele | Medical Services

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  • English
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David Steele | Education

Undergraduate School

Harvard University

Cambridge, MA

Medical School

Albert Einstein College of Medicine

1983, Bronx, NY

Internship

Children's Hospital of Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA

Residency

Children's Hospital of Los Angeles

1986, Los Angeles, CA

Fellowship

Biology

California Institute of Technology

Los Angeles, CA

David Steele | Professional History

It only took a couple of years sitting at a lab bench in college to convince Dr. Steele he really needed to work with people, and so switched from his plan to be a scientist to one of becoming a doctor. A couple of years in medical school convinced him what he really wanted was to be a pediatrician: He'd have the most fun patients, have the nicest colleagues, and that was the only way he'd end up with patients who would always laugh at my jokes. Dr. Steele met his wife, Cherie, during college: she was from Los Angeles, so they took off to that Other Coast where he did his residency and then a fellowship in Pediatric Hematology & Oncology at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles.

After another lab bench tour at Caltech, and then 3 years as an attending in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at L.A. Children's, they decided they missed the East Coast too much. They had loved Boston and Dr. Steele had grown up in Schenectady, NY, so they started looking around the area. They moved to the Pioneer Valley in 1994, at which time his wife started commuting up to Burlington where she taught at the University of Vermont. Dr. Steele continued as an attending in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Baystate Medical Center, becoming division chief in 2000. He loved his work in Pediatric Hematology/Oncology: He not only could help children who desperately needed help (and most times they really CAN help), but had the special privilege of getting very close to the kids and their families over a very long period of time.

He also served as the Medical Director for a camp for teenagers with cancer called "Island of Hope." This was a complete joy to see kids who were or had been so sick rowing boats, swinging on ropes, and otherwise facing Outward Bound challenges on Thompson's Island in Boston Harbor (not to mention holding his belay rope while scaling a 70 foot climbing tower!). Hematology/Oncology was a very intense way to practice medicine but, rewarding as it was, both the time and the emotions involved began to loom large, particularly after his son, Nate, came into our lives in 1999.

And so in September 2003, Dr. Steele decided to return to that original happier side of Pediatrics and move from the hospital setting to work in the community. His son was already a patient here at NAP, and he knew the pediatricians in the group from working with them while at Baystate. He knew this was exactly the place he wanted to be. He still sees some patients with blood disorders. Most important, though, at NAP he has the wonderful opportunity to share in the lives of new kids and families and to watch them grow. And now he's also seeing those same kids in his community: at Stop & Shop, or the Y, or Look Park. For hobbies Dr. Steele likes to tackle building projects at our house, ride my bike, juggle, and best of all, putter in his garden, coaxing those tomatoes to turn red. He's still working on the jokes, though….