Pulling Back the Curtain
Brian G. M. Durie, MD
In this edition, Brian G. M. Durie, MD, shares how his father’s battle with
tuberculosis led to his interest in medicine, and how his decision to focus in
myeloma happened almost at random. Dr. Durie is an attending physician at
the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California; chairman of the
International Myeloma Foundation; and chairman of the International Myeloma
Working Group.
Dr. Durie at a cooking class in Italy.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in North Berwick,
Scotland – a small town just
outside of Edinburgh. At the
time, it was a fishing village with
a population of fewer than 2,000
people.
I have two sisters – one older
and one younger. Our father
worked at the local railway
station, and our mother worked
as a nanny. We certainly were not
a wealthy family, which is one
of the reasons I started working
at a young age. Around 10 years
old, I had a job at the local
butcher shop, making deliveries
around town on my bicycle. I also
delivered newspapers on the side.
I was a busy kid.
14
ASH Clinical News
When did you become
interested in medicine?
As it turned out, it was sort of a
family thing. My father developed
tuberculosis when I was young,
and he was quite ill during my
childhood. Because of that, I had
a lot of contact with doctors; they
would make regular house calls
to visit him during his last two
or three years [of his life]. Seeing
how well they took care of him
and getting to know the doctors
on a personal level gave me the
idea to pursue medicine.
When my father passed away,
I was just starting high school
and thinking about medicine as
a c