In this special three-part series, Pitt Medcast introduces Anantha Shekhar—Pitt’s new senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and the John and Gertrude Petersen Dean of the School of Medicine. In February 2020, we sat down with him in Pitt Studios to get to know him and hear his insights on the future of medicine and Pitt’s place in it. Then, in May, we called him to talk again, remotely, about the road ahead for Pitt in the post-COVID-19 world.

In this episode, Part 1, the MD/PhD and nationally recognized educator, researcher, entrepreneur and leader in medicine, shares his story, his inspiration for pursuing medicine in the first place, and his thoughts on medicine’s most transformative developments in recent years.