Robin S. Freedberg, MD

In the spring of first grade, more than six decades ago, I tripped running on a cobblestone pathway and sustained a fracture of my dominant wrist. That was an understandably depressing event for a star batter on the cusp of stickball season in my Queens neighborhood. But the experience turned out to be a blessing in disguise – an opportunity to cross paths with an engaging orthopedic surgeon whose non-patronizing explanation of my X-rays, diagnosis, and management inspired my interest in medicine. And so it was that my second-grade science project was born – a poster depicting five types of fractures, created with the leg bones of three chickens that I’d begged my mother to roast for my school assignment.

Although my Hunter High School and Harvard College studies and my early-adult life experiences comprised disparate disciplines, including history, journalism, and social justice activism, my curiosity about medicine never waned. I craved a future as a healer endowed with the same skill set I remembered my elementary school orthopedist possessing – kindness, competence, and the ability to convey complicated technical information to patients with varying degrees of medical literacy.

Throughout medical school, I remained open-minded with regard to a specific career path. But several experiences caring for patients with heart disease during my training in internal medicine galvanized my desire to make the diagnosis and treatment of complex cardiovascular disease the focus of my professional life.

Since completing my fellowship, my work has been split between NYU Langone’s very busy and academically productive echocardiography laboratory and my clinical practice in cardiology. The latter includes consultative and second opinion evaluations, as well as the longitudinal care of patients, particularly those with valvular disease and cardiomyopathies.

I am amazed at how much I continue to learn every day – from my activities in both venues, from my colleagues, from my patients, and from my interaction with our trainees. It is a privilege to participate in our lab’s research into new and evolving cardiac imaging technologies, to contribute to the medical literature, to teach fellows, residents and students, and to care for patients at an institution committed to delivering superb, cutting-edge cardiovascular medicine.