In Memoriam: Stephan Kamholz, MD

摘要

"You don't know your license plate?" The voice was that of Stephan Kamholz, MD, who had recently been appointed Chairman of the newly combined Department of Medicine of Long Island Jewish and North Shore University Hospitals. He had asked me and Dr. Alessandro Bellucci to be his Vice Chairs. He had poked his head into my office as I was leaving to check out my license plate for an EZ Pass application. "I suppose you know your license plate," I responded. "He smiled. "Not only do I know the license plates on the three cars in my family but I know their VIN numbers." The VIN number in my car had 17 digits. According to his colleague and friend Vijay Shetty, MD, Steve's subsequent Vice Chair at Maimonides Hospital, "everyone knew about his eidetic memory."