max s. gerber(the latest shot)

four years ago, as a junior at middlebury college, corey was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (lou gehrig’s disease). he had started to notice things. he had trouble moving well. his speech was sometimes slurred. it was harder to write and type than it should be. corey is tall and athletic, and even now, four [...]

we photographed claire at home for the cedars-sinai medical center’s research magazine. suffering from an inherited autoimmune disease, claire was involved with new genetic testing and therapies offered at the hospital. one of the benefits of living and working in southern california is that you can occasionally stumble into these incredible locations. claire is on [...]

wendy mogel is a psychologist who focuses on issues of parenting and families. ten years ago she wrote a book called “the blessing of a skinned knee”, which dealt with raising kids to be responsible, self-reliant, aware of the world and capable. the book is framed with teachings from jewish law, the talmud and the [...]

this week i’m headed off to orlando to the cardiology 2010 conference. i’ll be speaking and signing books there saturday night (2.13.10) at the disney contemporary resort. if you’re in the neighborhood please stop by and say hello! as part of my presentation to the conference i made this short film. this conference is mostly [...]

ron bloom married sandy, his high school sweetheart, and made his fortune in real estate. in 1988 sandy died after a long battle with cancer. some time later ron met lois, and they married. lois had also lost close family to cancer, and now they’ve both given a substantial philanthropic endowment to cancer research at [...]

the wildfires look much closer than they actually are, still far enough away that there doesn’t seem to be much fear of evacuation, at least not in pasadena where i live. i’ve been holed up with a summer cold the past few days, watching the flames burn over the ridge in the distance at night. [...]

in about ten weeks i’ll be an uncle. that is, i’ll be an uncle officially. my brother is having a baby. it feels like i’ve been an uncle for a very long time. even though i don’t see my many honorary nieces and nephews very often these days, there’s a strange sort of closeness that [...]

twenty years ago anissa ayala was a 16 year old girl who had just found that she had developed a very aggressive form of leukemia. at the time the national donor registry had very few names and with no matches on the donor list, and no matches in the family, the ayalas made an unusual [...]

sometimes i get pegged for the tough jobs. i have a handful of clients for whom i fall into a certain niche; i’m the go-to guy for stories that require sensitivity in handling, stories that involve advocacy for patients or those in some distress. i’ve even been referred to as “humanistic” by some editors. frankly, [...]

for the past few days i’ve been chasing a 6 week old kitten around the floor of my office, trying not to get my feet clawed and bitten. i’ve had to move fast and be vigilant. still, sometimes the little guy catches me, even though i’m watching him out of the corner of my eye [...]