Steven Gabbe
CEO
Ohio State University Medical Center
Born: Newark, N.J.
Education: Bachelor of arts degree, Princeton University; medical degree, Weill Cornell Medical College
What was your very first job?
I was probably about 10 or 11 when I worked on a fishing boat off the New Jersey coast. I helped people bait their hooks and clean their fish, and I got a chance to do some fishing while I worked on the boat. I met a lot of people who got seasick.
Whom has been the biggest influence on who you are today?
Dr. Priscilla White. She was a pioneer at the Joslin [Diabetes Center] in Boston. I developed diabetes when I was a medical student. Dr. White took care of me when I was a resident in Boston. She was a pioneer in the field of diabetes in pregnancy. She began working with women not long after the discovery of insulin. I have dedicated most of my career to taking care of pregnant women with diabetes. She was a huge influence on my career.
What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Do good, and don’t complain.
If you could sit down with anyone, past or present, whom would it be and why?
Hippocrates. I’d like to learn about the practice of healing as he thought of it in its very earliest stages. As physicians, we take the Hippocratic Oath. I would love to talk with him about how the Hippocratic Oath came to be formulated. It still influences our day-to-day practice of medicine.
