Oct. 20, 2025: In this episode of MedCast, Dr. Stephen Rockower sits down with Dr. Eric Wargotz, a pathologist from Queen Anne's County and the MedChi President for 2025-2026. The two discuss Dr. Wargotz' fascinating path to medicine, including a stint as a working actor, and his interest in politics. Join Dr. Rockower to learn more about Dr. Wargotz' interest in food insecurity and access to food and other areas of focus for his year as president of MedChi.
Dr. Rockower (00:05):
Welcome to MedCast, the podcast from MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society. Each episode we will be doing a deep dive into medicine and taking an insider's look on issues facing Maryland's physicians, patients, and healthcare more broadly. I'm your host, Dr. Stephen Rockower. Today my guest is Dr. Eric Wargotz, a pathologist from Queen Annes County, and a judge there on the Orphans Court and President-elect of MedChi. Welcome Dr. Wargotz.
Dr. Wargotz (00:37):
Thanks for having me, Dr. Rockower.
Dr. Rockower (00:39):
I am so happy to do this. I know that we've all been looking forward to doing this because you're such a wonderful member of MedChi and President-Elect, and so I'm looking forward to this conversation. So let's start with a couple of little early things. Where'd you go to medical school? Why did you go into medicine? Give me something about your background.
Dr. Wargotz (01:07):
So I went to a college campus undergraduate called Livingston College, which was developed and started to serve the socioeconomically underprivileged youth of New Jersey. And although I may not have come from that particular background, I was not a stellar high school student. And in fact, I didn't have much interest in going to college. But I had a friend who said, Hey, I'm going there, why don't you apply? So I applied. I got in and I went to Livingston College and I did well. And partly through that time I decided I wanted to go to medical school. It was a second semester of my sophomore year there, and I improved my academic skills, but I still wasn't quite competitive for the mainland USA schools based on grades and scores. So I've always been a resourceful individual. People would say that about me and I started looking elsewhere. And what I discovered is in addition to schools in Canada, which are AAMC accredited, there are also schools in Puerto Rico, which are a AAMC accredited. Did you know that?
Dr. Rockower (02:37):
I did not.
Dr. Wargotz (02:38):
Yeah. So I took that route because after doing some research, I discovered that they accept about 10% of the class by semester, not by year, by semester of mainland students. And I also noticed that the MCAT scores requirements were on average a little lower, and the GPAs, the folks they accepted and tend to were a little lower. So I figured, well, I like Spanish. I had a year of it. I knew some people from the islands and Latin America, South America while I was in college. And I applied and I got in. So for the first two years, predominantly the didactic education, I was at the Universidad Central del Caribe Escuela de Medicine de Cayey, is a town in the center of the island. It had just been accredited by the AAMC, but going through my year and a half there really ultimately two years. But realizing after my first year that the clinical experience on the island wasn't going to be the same as on the mainland, primarily because technology hadn't caught up down there. That was available on the mainland. There was one CT scanner for the whole island. And there were other things which I viewed as potentially deficient by the time I reached if I practiced back in the States. So I looked for transferring after my second year, and I was accepted by several, but I decided to attend Ohio State, and that's where I finished in 1983.
Dr. Rockower (04:22):
Were they teaching in Spanish?
Dr. Wargotz (04:24):
It was to the discretion of the lecture, the professor, as well as the test, the testing as well.
Dr. Rockower (04:33):
Okay. Just as an aside, when I was in medical school, some of my friends were in school in Mexico and we had a notetaking service among ourselves, and that was all in Spanish. We had a note taking service among ourselves at Temple in Philadelphia, and we would send our notes down to my buddies in Mexico so they knew what the US medical school schools were teaching and at least the notes were in English. Okay, go ahead, I'm sorry.
Dr. Wargotz (05:06):
No, absolutely. Dr. Rockower. That's perfectly fine. So it helped round out my experience from my upbringing. I was raised in pretty much a white middle to lower middle class community where minority representation was at a minimum. And so going to live in college where I was a minority led to certain issues, both pleasant and unpleasant. And then going to school in Puerto Rico where again, I was viewed as a minority also, I had wonderful experiences and more rare unpleasant experience. And then I did in college, undergraduate school. So it really rounded out my perspective. And what I really loved about it is we started doing clinical work at an early stage and you were called doctor even as a first and second year medical student by the community. And this is a small mountain community, which much of it was considered a barrio, but not in the sense that we as Americans view barrios not as ghettos or particularly poor areas, just underserved areas where people live very modest and simple lives agrarian type of lives. And so from the very start, we were told to grab our doctor bag on day one, and we held clinics every outreach we'd call it here today in the schools. And we do medical clinics for testing for diabetes and high blood pressure and in all sorts of interesting things, which for a first and second year medical student, I think for me it was invaluable experience.
Dr. Rockower (06:52):
Absolutely. You wound up at Ohio State, you said. How did you get into pathology?
Dr. Wargotz (06:59):
Well, I was one of those medical students who loved every rotation I went through. So Ohio State at the time, I don't know if it exists today the same way the curriculum was arranged so that your third year was entirely the required clinical rotations. Your entire fourth year was elective, one month electives. And that began in September for me. And so I was really focused on pediatrics or general and general surgery, and those are the programs I had sent out my inquiries to and had a stack of primary applications sitting on my table in my simple apartment. And then I chose my first elective as pathology. I said, I've always liked microscopes, I had a lot of hobbies when I was a kid. I had insects, fossils, rocks, baseball cards, shells, I mean, you name it, I...
Dr. Rockower (07:56):
Don't get me started on fossils.
Dr. Wargotz (07:58):
I was interested in that. And so what I did, I took pathology and I got to tell you I was so happy rotating through every lab bench and then the surgical pathology with the tissue and the cytopathology and the autopsies. And I didn't send out one secondary application for one of the other programs, the pediatrics or surgery. I did send out the primaries and I just focused on pathology. I said, I'll miss the patient contact. But the stimulation of seeing all of this material, usually the most challenging patient cases in the medical center come through the lab both as blood work, body fluids and tissue and cells. So I can't even express it today how I was to have found it. And I've been thrilled ever since. It strikes a lot of chords with me still that visual stimulation with the colors and patterns really fit into my childhood hobbies of a lot of pattern recognition and colors and shapes.
Dr. Rockower (09:17):
I'm glad you're not colorblind.
Dr. Wargotz (09:19):
No, please.
Dr. Rockower (09:23):
So how has your work as a pathologist influenced your understanding of the healthcare system?
Dr. Wargotz (09:30):
Well, it it's by force. And what I mean by that, and it's no criticism of specialists at all. I have liked to view myself, and perhaps it goes back to my upbringing and how I view the world and people and on all sorts of things. Our biology is that I'm a physician first and I'm a specialist second. And I've never lost sight of that for myself, not judging others. And so I have always focused on the broader house of Maryland and of medicine. I apologize, the broader house of medicine and the issues facing our communities on the healthcare level. And then the pathology has been right there next to it beside it or slightly behind it in priority.
Dr. Rockower (10:26):
Okay. We'll get back to the healthcare system, but let me ask you about your public persona of first as a county commissioner and now as a judge of the Orphans court. How did that get started?
Dr. Wargotz (10:39):
That's a very good question. Sometimes I lay at night staring at the ceiling thinking, and I'll tell you again, it goes back... It's a very complex past and I know we don't want to spend the whole 45 minutes on non-medical type things, but
(10:56):
I didn't start off in medicine. I wanted to be an Egyptologist Middle East archeologist, and I wanted to be a paleontologist. And at one point I took time off from school and lived on the streets of New York in Greenwich Village for about three months as a street actor because I had spent seven years on stage on the Jersey Shore from about eight years to 16 or 17 years old doing stage work. And so I was trying to figure myself out. And so I think I've always been interested in public speaking ever since I can remember Dr. Rockower. I've always wanted a duality in my life and that duality is to serve others. And I think that came a lot from my parents and I wanted to do it through my love of the natural sciences through medicine, but I also wanted to serve understanding how policy is developed and implemented and how it affects our societies and our communities.
(12:03):
So I always felt part of my life should be spent doing that as well. So when I had an opportunity, I saw some things I didn't like happening in my community of Queen Anne's County. I decided instead of sitting around Dunkin' Donuts drinking coffee and eating cakes with my friends, all complaining, I decided I like to try to do something about, try to implement some ideas, is the first issue with any system is recognizing there's a problem. And the second one is trying to determine solutions. And the third one is trying to implement those solutions. So that's what I sought to do as I ran for President of the County Commission in 2006.
Dr. Rockower (12:54):
And then how did you get from there to being a judge?
Dr. Wargotz (12:57):
Well, I believe in term limits in terms of most offices. And I took myself out after accomplishing everything I wanted to do in the first four years. I had a checklist and you don't do it alone. Mr. Ransom was part of my commission when I was president.
Dr. Rockower (13:19):
Oh my.
Dr. Wargotz (13:20):
And so I've known Mr. Ransom, our CEO for a very long time, and we shared the presidency. I was on the ballot as president. I'm guaranteed the first year I was selected as the second year. And I know we all knew Mr. Ransom, it was in his second term and he would've wanted a shot at that position. So we rotated it to him for the remaining two. So it was a very enjoyable four years, and we accomplished what we set out to do. So I saw no reason to run again, and I took some time off, looked at a few other opportunities, and then ran for judge of the Orphans court.
Dr. Rockower (13:59):
And what are your duties of that and how does your medical background influence that?
Dr. Wargotz (14:07):
Well, part of what I ran on was the fact that as a pathologist, I deal with grieving families quite often and I understand the loss. And what we do in the Orphans Court is we deal, it's strictly limited to estate and then some areas of guardianship law, we make some decisions about guardianships, mostly overseeing guardianships. The circuit court's responsible for assigning guardians. So that really dovetailed in well with my experience with life death situations as a pathologist and dealing with decedent's wishes and their loved ones following their death. So it was very interesting and seemed to dovetail very well for me. I am a law school dropout in good standing. They can check the record. I did go for about six, seven months and then withdrew due to some challenges going on with the hospital contract at the time. And I never went back, unfortunately.
Dr. Rockower (15:25):
Okay. Well, I lived with a lawyer for many years. I know the deal.
(15:33):
So what kinds of policies are you proud of from your time in government? What did you do? And is there anything that goes back and forth between your medical career and your public service career?
Dr. Wargotz (15:51):
I'm not sure what's meant by back and forth, but let me at least capitalize on something you did mention and that's proud of. I think you mentioned that word or things we did while I was commission president and I went in there with a real focus on community health and safety.
(16:15):
And we had seen a study from the prior commission that showed that our response time for ambulances was dismal, was really bad. And we were primarily a volunteer EMS service. We had a rudimentary county service at the time. And this is, I have nothing but great praise for all the volunteers, but when you're on the job somewhere and you're wearing a pager or a walkie-talkie and they tell you, we have an emergency, you got to come to the house and the firehouse or the EMS station and hop in an ambulance. There's a delay there. So that's the difference between paid service, paid service, they're there waiting
Dr. Rockower (17:00):
And there's
Dr. Wargotz (17:01):
Inefficiencies in that. But if you're going to choose an inefficiency, I'd rather have people on the county payroll waiting to come and take care of Dr. Rockower in his house and get there within six minutes rather than get there in 10 to 15 minutes. So that's what we were dealing with. And I went in there and with the help of the other commissioners, led the way for revamping our system and making us primarily a paid system through the county EMS and with partnering with the volunteers. And that's what it is today. It functions much better. Everyone's very happy, including some of the volunteers I had difficulty with initially. And the system is really a model. It's doing very well. The citizens are better served for certain, and we've done, we've done response time studies since then and it's continued to improve well above the national, well, I should say the response time is below the national recommendations.
(18:04):
And then we opened a urgent care center with Anne Arundel. We dedicated that with a platinum plaque. And the biggest accomplishment in healthcare in the county is we led the way for the first freestanding emergency center in Maryland. There are two counties in Maryland that do not have a hospital. It is Queen Anne's County and Caroline County, no hospital, no inpatient beds. And so we worked with our state delegation at the time in the legislature, the entire legislature, and they approved a unique for the time, one of a kind approval for us to have set up a freestanding emergency room 24/7, an ambulance and helicopter, the whole nine yards. And what we were then faced with finding the land, that was our job on the local level. So I helped close the deal. Some say I was instrumental in closing that deal with a private owner to get them to donate the land for that and without any strings attached, there's no quid pro quo.
(19:16):
It's illegal, to be honest, to take a piece of land and then promise certain zoning, zoning designations for other developments. So that was totally arm's length. There were no guarantees. And ultimately the whole area was turned into a medical park, doctor's offices and things. So that's where we stand today. And it's been a great addition to the center, to the center of our healthcare in Queen Anne's County. And we're very proud of that. And what I love about healthcare and safety, we all agree we want safe streets, safe neighborhoods, we want healthy communities, and we want good response times for fire suppression as well as EMS services. Where politics come in the way is how we go about achieving those goals. So I think we're all very proud of what we accomplished during our four year term in the area of community health and safety.
Dr. Rockower (20:14):
Right. Part of community health is food access and food insecurity. I know you've been involved in some of this. How do you foresee things going forward
Dr. Wargotz (20:27):
In our community or in the nation or Maryland is?
Dr. Rockower (20:30):
Well, in Maryland or in the community, you're going to be president. What can you do as president?
Dr. Wargotz (20:36):
Well, we're going to see, we know the Big Beautiful Bill just passed and there's obviously Medicaid cuts and there will be effects to Medicare as well.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
I call that the big ugly bill,
Dr. Wargotz (20:48):
But that's okay. Well, I'm not going to
Dr. Rockower (20:52):
Not discuss that.
Dr. Wargotz (20:54):
The reality is that for those who may not understand policy development and legislation, and I hope nobody feels insulted that I'm speaking down to them, that's not the intent. But the fact of the matter is that once a law is developed is legislation, then it's signed into law, in this case the president. Now those goals in that law need to be worked out, sorted out and implemented. So there's a lot more work that needs to be done on how those goals in those laws are implemented. And that's all about the policy development. That's going to take some time. But we know that cuts are coming, those were specified that there will be cuts and how that affects our rural communities immediately or in the long term, as well as our inner city communities. All communities will remain to be seen. But everyone, we're all very concerned.
Dr. Rockower (22:00):
Can MedChi affect any of that of getting food access to people or dealing with food insecurity? Obviously as physicians, we're always concerned with good nutrition. What can MedChi do about that?
Dr. Wargotz (22:19):
Well, I have long answers for that, and I don't know if we have enough time, but
Dr. Rockower (22:23):
Well give me the executive summary.
Dr. Wargotz (22:26):
The executive summary is yes and no. And the yes is, it all depends if we're invited to the table. We have a very good relationship, I know with Health and Mental Hygiene and Maryland and hopefully, hopefully with the governor's office. So if they will allow us to sit at the table and provide feedback on what they're considering, that would be helpful If they would invite us at the table at the foundation of what's to be considered, that would be even better. I think in terms of food security, food deserts, access to snap, you may not know this, but I've been focused on SNAP since I was a medical student and it is called food stamps back then. I've been very concerned about not just access, but what is accessible to purchase through the SNAP program. I think many of us who've been following this along the years, perhaps for decades, do recognize some shortcomings of the program and that we'd like to see some changes. And I've been working with our federal delegation with certainly support from Mr. Ransom and some others to try to affect some changes. And that's all been on hold. We've been working on that for about 18 months, but waiting for this bill to pass, which specifies cuts to snap. Now we need to see where they are making the cuts. But it seems to me, Dr. Rockower, and I think it seems to you as well, I know we've mentioned this before, is that it's not so much.
(24:13):
Certainly part of the problem with the SNAP program is what it can be used to purchase, but a bigger problem we see, and the government doesn't address this on the federal or the state level is what you brought up earlier as food access, what we'll refer to with SNAP and department agriculture refer to as food deserts where you can provide this nutritional support for people who need it, but yet they don't have places to go to make the purchases of healthy choices if they wish. Absolutely. And it's a real issue, and when I speak with federal representatives, it's something that always comes up and I just don't get a good answer. But I got plenty of answers about what they can be used for and that's important and how they might be abused and wasted out there perhaps by folks who don't really qualify but are getting them. And I understand that's a problem too. But the food desert issue is really something that needs to be addressed and is part of the trifecta of the issue is too. We've now discussed all three of them, which I've been focused on, which trying to work on, and that's something I'm going to continue to work on, particularly as it affects Maryland in my term as the active president, the current president, which begins October 25th through October 25th, I guess.
Dr. Rockower (25:53):
I guess, whatever. I don't know. Whatever the dates are, I think that's good. So we've talked about your top priorities of this term. How do you involve other physicians in your program and how does MedChi get other physicians to buy into this kind of program?
Dr. Wargotz (26:22):
Well, that is a challenge, but we haven't considered that to be the major challenge, but it is a challenge. The major challenge is getting funding from the feds outside of the Department of Agriculture to fund a pilot program led by Maryland that could serve as a model for medical societies throughout the country. And that model would be that we use MedChi as a launching ground as a pilot for utilizing our physician network, both members and non-members, developing a physician network so that when we have patients come into our offices who might qualify or are already receiving SNAP benefits that we can encourage them, educate them to make healthier choices, as well as direct them on how they might access the food sources that are available for those healthy choices. And the idea is that we're trying to obtain X millions of dollars funding from the federal government to fund this pilot program over a certain two to three year program and try to implement this, develop a website that will coordinate activities, develop a stipend program out of that funding so that physicians are not just incentivized by their goodwill and their love for their communities and the patients, but also that they are compensated in some way for their efforts.
(28:09):
Because right now, education for the SNAP program is in Maryland, is administered through some community colleges, some health clinics, and the Department of Agriculture Extension offices. And it varies how much of the educational money that the state gets from the feds for SNAP gets distributed among them. And in other states it's different. Each state decides how they're going to distribute it. So we are looking for essentially a grant for a pilot project from the feds and to help us jumpstart this. So I would hope there are other physicians that hold in their heart similar desire to help their community through taking on this added responsibility for which they will hopefully feel good about as well as received some financial compensation for their good effort.
Dr. Rockower (29:13):
What kinds of things can we do to get busy physicians who are trying to see their patients get out of clinic, get through their EMRs, close out their inboxes and whatever? How do you get them more involved in organized medicine and the AMA and MedChi and all that?
Dr. Wargotz (29:36):
Well, I can't speak for the AMA, but I can speak for MedChi and think we have to go back to our, we always have to remember that although MedChi is a physician focused organization, some would even say it's a lobby group on behalf of physicians. I'm not saying that, but I can understand the view of a trade organization. I think for me, it comes back to presenting membership from the standpoint of advocacy, not just for yourself, but for your patients and community. Because ultimately what's good for the physician is good for the patient and the community. Just take the issue of money.
Dr. Rockower (30:19):
I put it the other way around, what's good for the patient is good for the physician.
Dr. Wargotz (30:22):
It works all the way around. It's a circle. Absolutely, it's a circle with arrows going both ways, always. But in terms of those individuals in the community who aren't physicians, and look at it as a physician organization, it is a physician organization, but it's everything we do for ourselves affects the patient, even our pay, even the contentious issue of pay, if physicians were to be paid more, none unless reimbursement, Dr. Rockower, we're not
Dr. Rockower (30:55):
Being, oh, don't use that R word.
Dr. Wargotz (30:58):
It's not a reimbursement exercise. We ought to be paid for what we provide. And I think all patients agree with that. So the issue really is as physicians pay becomes more competitive, especially if we were ever to see cost of living increases, you'd see that maybe physicians wouldn't feel the need to rush through so many patient visits or see so many patients per day. I can't say that's true for all physicians, but I think that's true for some that I've spoken with. I mean, they're trying to reach a profitable level and for primary care physicians and practices, it can be very challenging. The expenses are huge and the, I'll leave it at that in the profit margin is people, I think some people would be shocked how little that many solo primary care physicians net at the end of the year
Dr. Rockower (32:02):
And the pediatricians as well.
Dr. Wargotz (32:03):
Oh, absolutely. And there's many, many specialties who suffer.
Dr. Rockower (32:09):
Why did you decide to become president of MedChi?
Dr. Wargotz (32:14):
It fulfills part of my inner goals of serving the community and in leading some change that I feel is important. So that's what we'll attempt to do together through MedChi. I think there's a lot of controversy at the federal regarding our secretary of health of HHS at the federal level, but I'll take one point that Secretary Kennedy makes, and it's the focus on better nutrition. And I think that a lot of us can rally around that concept. Maybe not the specifics of what everybody feels is good nutrition, but we all have heard of preventive medicine, preventive health, and so very few figure out a way to practice it or promote it. And so a focus on preventing disease or delaying disease, a renewed focus with greater emphasis on it in our practices, rather than treating the end results, which we'll always end up doing in any case, treating disease as it presents, I think is a good focus. I think it's a good focus for our country that we should focus more on preventive health or additionally on preventive health. I don't know one family doc that doesn't try to incorporate it in some fashion, but I am a believer that we all can do more, and I think most agree that we should be doing more.
Dr. Rockower (34:11):
I think I'm going to agree with you on that because as everybody's always said, prevention is an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. And granted, as an orthopedic surgeon, I certainly provide pounds of cure.
Dr. Wargotz (34:28):
So I think that it makes a lot of sense to people. And one of the things, I think if folks are listening to this before October, House of Delegates meeting October 25th, what I'm trying to put together as a panel before the session begins, before the House of Delegates, before the formal transfer from the current president to myself occurs, we often have a CME discussion or presentation, what I'm working on putting together right now, which will move forward, I'm just not sure of all the players, all the participants as a panel on this very topic of improving our public health through preventive medicine, preventative health. I have a few speakers lined up. I'm trying to lock in one more so I won't mention, but it'll be a good discussion and I think people will be, I'm
Dr. Rockower (35:26):
Looking forward to that. Okay. Well, let's change gears a little bit here. If you weren't in medicine, what would you doing?
Dr. Wargotz (35:40):
I'd probably be in music or film.
Dr. Rockower (35:45):
Oh,
Dr. Wargotz (35:47):
I know that sounds funny, right?
Dr. Rockower (35:49):
Yeah. Tell me more about that.
Dr. Wargotz (35:51):
So when I was a resident, I took a few, I mentioned a little acting background and I've been schizophrenic about that, and I took acting in front of the camera and I really loved it. So I started doing some TV commercials, some public service announcement stuff, some TV show. Some of it was principal work, but it wasn't central to many of the programming. So I wound up on the editor's floor. But the reality is between that and background work, I'm a member of SAG after, which is the Actor's Union. I've done producing a little script writing, and so
Dr. Rockower (36:32):
I'll have to get your autograph.
Dr. Wargotz (36:33):
But no, I wouldn't say that at all. Like I said, most of it's on the cutting room floor, but it's a fascinating industry. It's cutthroat, it's bitter, it's really awful. But sometimes I feel that medicine saved me. If I had gone on that route, I don't know how long I would've lasted. It's quite a pressure cooker and it's a very difficult industry. Like so many the arts think of it in terms of struggling artists in the arts.
Dr. Rockower (37:07):
Absolutely. What do you do? What do you do on the weekends?
Dr. Wargotz (37:14):
On the weekends? What do I do? I spend a lot of time with my lovely bride, Cheryl Ann. The kids are out of the house now. They're on their own. I do a lot of,
Dr. Rockower (37:24):
Trust me, they come back,
Dr. Wargotz (37:25):
They come back. I do a lot of manual labor. I'm I, I'm not a gym person. I have trouble exercising for the sake of exercise. I have trouble reconciling that in my mind. God bless those who stay fit that way. I stay fit by pushing wheelbarrows, lifting rocks and logs and digging, digging holes so my wife can plant shrubs and flowers. So I actually enjoy all that. It's what I feel keeps me fit despite my aging body, and I enjoy that. I do reading. I fool around with guitar. I collect guitars, repair guitars, sell guitars, buy guitars.
Dr. Rockower (38:13):
What's the last book you read?
Dr. Wargotz (38:14):
The last book I read was When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi.
Dr. Rockower (38:23):
Yes, he was.
Dr. Wargotz (38:25):
It was an very interesting, and
Dr. Rockower (38:27):
He's a physician? He was a
Dr. Wargotz (38:30):
Neurosurgeon.
Dr. Rockower (38:31):
Neurosurgeon, right.
Dr. Wargotz (38:33):
But I'm reading now is a book called Hammer the Gods by Steven Davis, and it's a story of Led Zeppelin in their 11 year ascension from success to breakup, and that's a great book about the rock band Led Zeppelin. They sort of kicked off the metal error of rock music.
Dr. Rockower (38:57):
Okay. What advice would you give to your younger self?
Dr. Wargotz (39:02):
What advice would I give to my younger self? Stay focused. Have a plan. I love the phrase that, let's see, how does it go, Dr. Rockower? It's that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
(39:24):
And I'm a big believer in that one of the keys to your future achievement and your happiness, which generally can go hand in hand, is to be able to have the wisdom even at a young age of introspection, looking inside and knowing what makes you tick, what do you want and what do you want out of life as life lays ahead of you. There's many doors, many options, and you've got to define for yourself what you want. Try to figure out at your early age and graduate high school. I've had to give graduation speeches when I was president of the county commissioners, you're invited to give commencement speeches, all sorts of things. So I've had time to think about this, what to tell young people, including the younger self. And it is
(40:15):
Really try to take some time out of your busy social life and these days, social media and your sports and your hobbies, and whether you're interested in boys, girls, or both. Try to take some time out of those passions and your hobbies and really consider what you think you'd like your future to look like. And then don't plan it in too much detail, but go for it. Go for it. Anything's achievable. I believe that for anybody, especially in these times in this country, regardless of your background, heritage, religion, race, whatever you want to call it, I do believe that. I've always believed that for everybody, and there are plenty of other people who will mentor you and assist you in trying to make that happen for you. I believe in that. There's a little saying I created a number of years ago and I said, what's helped me, Dr. Rockower and anyone listening, is that to always consider the wisdom of hindsight, the vision of foresight and the most powerful is the power of insight. You keep those three sites on your mind and you're going to do just fine. Again, it's the wisdom of hindsight, the vision of foresight and the power of insight. And I try to live my life that way by reflecting on those and considering those.
Dr. Rockower (41:44):
Well, this has been most fascinating. Thank you so much to Dr. Eric Wargotz, who has been our guest on MedCast, the podcast from MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society. Tune in next time as we continue our conversations with the leaders of medicine in Maryland to discuss issues facing physicians and our patients. For all of us here at MedChi, I'm Dr. Stephen Rockower. Thank you and goodbye.