Eric Chow, MD, MPH
Dr. Eric Chow is an expert in understanding how childhood cancer survivors thrive and what long-term complications they may face due to the cancer treatments they received. He brings to this work his training in pediatric medicine (working with babies, children, and adolescents), hematology-oncology (the study of blood cancers), and epidemiology (the study of diseases and public health). He has multiple roles related to research, clinical work, and education/training across three partner organizations: Seattle Children’s Hospital, Fred Hutch Cancer Center, and the University of Washington School of Medicine.
Fred Hutch Faculty Profile
Chow Studies Group
What is a Physician-Researcher?
A Physician-Researcher is a physician who also devotes significant time and effort toward biomedical research. They can also be called physician-scientists or medical scientists. Physician-researchers usually see patients in clinical settings in addition to leading a lab or research group. They may conduct research in clinical, academic, or industry settings. They also may have teaching and mentoring responsibilities. These professionals often hold a PhD (doctoral degree) or master’s degree in addition to a MD (medical degree).
“My work focuses on helping people who have finished treatment for cancer thrive, despite any limitations from the cancer experience. For example, we have some projects that look to find out the best way we can help survivors of childhood cancer lead healthier lives, including better diet and more physical activity.”
— Dr. Chow
Dr. Chow's Story
Dr. Chow grew up in sunny Los Angeles, California. As a young boy, Dr. Chow loved building and tinkering with Legos and dreamed of becoming an architect. His mother worked various part-time jobs during his childhood. Her most interesting one, he recounted, was when she worked as “a pearl stringer for jewelry stores, where if someone’s pearl necklace broke, she would restring it.” Dr. Chow’s father worked as a professor of mathematics at a local college in Los Angeles, and his grandfather had also been a professor of mathematics in China and later in Taiwan. Dr. Chow reflected, “I knew growing up, even though I did okay in math, that I definitely did not want to be a math teacher.” Instead, he chose to study biology and go to medical school, however, he noted that mathematics remains important in his life. He explained, “in my current job as a researcher/scientist, we definitely do a lot of analyses and having a strong mathematical background is helpful.” In fact, two of the members of the Chow Studies Group at Fred Hutch Cancer Center work as Statistical Analysts to help make sense of all the data collected as part of their research studies.
Studying Cell Cultures From Rat Brains
Dr. Chow attended Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut where he pursued a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. While at Yale, Dr. Chow was invited to work in a mentor’s lab. Dr. Chow continued in this role as an undergraduate researcher for two years. He explained, “I mainly worked with cell cultures (from rat brains!), learning how they respond to low oxygen conditions, with the idea that human brain cells may have similar responses.” He continued, “we also were testing ways to better protect brain cells from low oxygen states which can otherwise be dangerous (like when someone has a stroke).” This lab-based research experience allowed Dr. Chow to learn “a lot about the scientific method,” but he also learned about his own preferences, which would shape his career trajectory. He explained, “I realized from this experience that I liked working more directly with people rather than in this type of lab setting, so that led me to where I am today, where I do research directly with human participants while also seeing patients in clinic.”
Check out Becoming the Next Cancer Researcher or Clinician for tips on finding research experiences and internships while in high school or college.
To Medical School and Beyond
After graduating with distinction magna cum laude from Yale (which means he had a high grade point average), Dr. Chow moved back to California to attend medical school at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. The first two years of medical school consist of preclinical course work, the third year is typically focused on patient care and involves rotations at hospitals and clinics, and the fourth year is focused on elective courses in a chosen specialty. During his third year of medical school, Dr. Chow found his calling. He shared, “in medical school, of all the rotations I tried, I liked pediatrics the most.” In this way, he “ended up working with children, which then led to pediatric oncology (cancer care)” as his specialty.
Dr. Chow took a year off from medical school between his third and fourth years. Some med students explore this option to gain experience conducting research in a lab or to achieve a Master’s degree. Dr. Chow pursued an accelerated one year Master’s of Public Health degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health. He received a scholarship for the program, which covered his tuition expenses.
Next, Dr. Chow finished his fourth and final year of medical school. He then moved to Washington state for his pediatric medicine residency at the University of Washington School of Medicine, and afterwards transitioned to a fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at Fred Hutch Cancer Center. Dr. Chow is board certified in pediatric hematology-oncology.
Educational Pathway
- Undergraduate/College: BS, Biology with distinction, magna cum laude, Yale University, New Haven, CT
- Medical School: MD with thesis, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, San Francisco, CA
- Gap Year/Graduate School: MPH, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, Berkeley, CA
- Residency: Pediatric medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle, WA
- Fellowship: Pediatric hematology-oncology, Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Seattle, WA
- Board Certification: Pediatric hematology-oncology
Find out more about the path to becoming a physician in the Pursuing a MD or PharmD (clinical doctorate) section of the Becoming the Next Cancer Researcher or Clinician resource.
Family Time
A challenge of his job and multiple roles is all the pulls on his time. Dr. Chow noted that, “sometimes there are a lot of meetings and not enough time to get other work done (or as quickly as one would like).” Time outside of work with his family is a great way to decompress. Dr. Chow and his wife have two children, one in elementary school and one in middle school. Family time is focused on his children’s many activities, such as soccer and band practice. The Chow family also like to take their paddleboards out to local lakes or beaches, go hiking, or ski and play in the snow. His older son enjoys experimenting with baking, so Dr. Chow often taste-tests his (mostly delicious) creations.
A Day in the Life
Clinical
On the clinical side, he is an attending physician at Seattle Children’s Hospital and the Medical Director for the Cancer Survivor Program. As a pediatric oncologist, Dr. Chow usually sees his young patients in the clinic one day per week. He shared, “I really enjoy seeing patients, and watching them grow and become independent adults. They also teach me a lot.”
Research
On the research side at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Dr. Chow is an Associate Professor in the Clinical Research and Public Health Sciences Divisions, as well as Director of the Prevention Center shared resource. His research focuses on childhood cancer survivors as well as people of all ages who have received blood stem cell transplantations. As part of this role, he has meetings throughout the week with his research team and collaborating research groups to review their various projects. Each week, he also spends some time writing articles or reviewing papers or projects produced by his research team, collaborators, or the students he supervises. Dr. Chow reflected that “doing science is fun as the things we learn from our patients can lead to new ideas as to how to help them cope with the issues they bring up.”
Education and Training
On the education and training side, Dr. Chow is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. In this role, he mentors graduate students and other trainees. Dr. Chow reflected that he enjoys “helping [graduate students and trainees] finish projects and giving them advice to help their careers.”
Helping Childhood Cancer Survivors Thrive
Dr. Chow’s own research focuses on how childhood cancer survivors can stay healthy once they have completed their treatments. One example is heart health. Some chemotherapy drugs used to fight cancer can also damage a patient’s heart. Dr. Chow and others are interested in knowing what could be done to protect the heart long-term in a child who receives these life-saving drugs. Could another drug be given alongside the chemotherapy to protect the heart? What is the benefit of that drug five, ten, or twenty years from now? It is difficult to conduct long-term research studies, but Dr. Chow is devoted to furthering our understanding of how to help childhood cancer survivors live healthy lives through adulthood.
As the Medical Director of the Cancer Survivor Program at Seattle Children’s, Dr. Chow is interested in how to best support people who were diagnosed and treated for cancer as children and teens to become healthy, thriving adults. The Cancer Survivor Program is staffed by physicians, nurses, a pediatric psychologist, and a genetic counselor. They work in cooperation with child life specialists, social workers, and financial counselors to support patients and their families as they prepare for life after cancer. Dr. Chow also serves as the Co-Director of the Survivorship Program at Fred Hutch, which supports adult cancer survivors.
Exercise, Eat Well, Survive
As Director of the Prevention Center shared resource at Fred Hutch Cancer Center, Dr. Chow supervises three facilities: the Exercise Research Center (ERC), the Human Nutrition Laboratory (HNL), and the Research Clinic. The Prevention Center is a resource that is shared across scientists and researchers at Fred Hutch who are focused on the prevention, intervention, and management of various diseases, including cancer.
Exercise Research Center
The Exercise Research Center (ERC) provides a gym-like facility where researchers can conduct studies into the role of exercise in reducing cancer risk factors and helping survivors thrive. The facility includes exercise equipment, showers, lockers, and a variety of specialized technology to gather data on breath, heart rate, muscle strength, metabolic rate, and more. The ERC is staffed by exercise physiologists.
Human Nutrition Lab
Some research studies investigate what people eat and the relationship between nutrition, health, and disease. The Human Nutrition Lab provides a kitchen facility for developing recipes and preparing meals carefully designed by registered dieticians. Dietary technicians use the kitchen facilities at the HNL to prepare meals, which are then provided to research subjects. A dining room is available for research subjects who eat their meals on-site, or the meals can be packaged to-go. The HNL is used by registered dietitians, nutritionists, dietary technicians, and researchers.
Research Clinic
The Research Clinic is a facility similar to a doctor’s office that is available to all Fred Hutch scientists who are conducting clinical research studies with human subjects. Researchers may need to interview a research subject or collect data, such as blood samples, measurements of weight and height, heart rate and blood pressure, or bone density measurements. They can do it all at the Research Clinic, which provides interview rooms, exam rooms, a specimen processing lab, and a pharmacy room. The Research Clinic is staffed by a Physician Assistant, medical technicians, and other clinicians.
Advice for Students
Try different things and hone your writing skills. Dr. Chow advises that students “try different things and don’t assume that what you think you like or want to be is necessarily what you end up doing.” (Remember his childhood dream of becoming an architect?). He also believes that “it’s good to do internships with people so you get to see what their daily lives are like.” With all of his responsibilities and roles across organizations, Dr. Chow also encourages students to consider how to develop their executive functioning skills. He explained, “I think the key to all of it is time management and being organized.” Also important are people skills, such as “treating everyone with respect but also setting clear expectations for oneself and those you work with.”
In addition, Dr. Chow emphasizes the importance of developing strong writing skills. He explained, “a key part of success as a scientist is being able to write well, as that is the bedrock of much of the scientific process – from applying for grants to publishing results.” Dr. Chow reflected, “in that regard, my ‘liberal’ arts education through Yale, where writing was very much emphasized, was pretty critical, much more so than those classes in biochemistry that one needs to take as a pre-med student.”
Check out Becoming the Next Cancer Researcher or Clinician for tips on finding internships and volunteer experiences while in high school or college.
"As pediatricians, we see people when they’re children. But our goal is to have them thrive as adults and live productive lives well beyond when they leave the hospital.”
— Dr. Chow
U.S. Wage Information
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, 2023:
- The median wage for a physician in the U.S. is $236,000
- The median wage for medical scientists in the U.S. is $100,890
Additional Resources
Credit: Thank you to Dr. Eric Chow for graciously participating in this project. Career profile written by Dr. Kristen Clapper Bergsman.