Brace yourself for possible bouts of low self-esteem, and take this quiz.
Which of these doesn't apply to Johns Hopkins transplant surgeon , age 43?
- Medical software developer
- Piano prodigy
- Techno band member
- Championship swing dancer and dance teacher
- Slalom water-skiing enthusiast
- Writer of legislation
It's no surprise if you didn't get it, it was a trick question: Segev is all of those, and more. He is one of those people who needs only 3 to 5 hours of sleep each night. And he admits to being an adrenaline junky -- one with an aggressive love of learning.
"Every day, I try to take on something I'm not good at," Segev says. "It makes no sense to me to live life only practicing things I already understand how to do."
Born in Israel and raised all over the U.S., Segev comes by his exceedingly full, high-octane life naturally. His dad was a concert violinist turned military tank commander turned chemical engineer. His mom taught high school math, then went back to school after Segev and his brothers were almost grown to get a graduate degree in computer science and after that worked as a programmer.
At age 9, Segev was playing piano concertos. When in high school, he and his father started a medical office software company, which later paid for his college education.
Segev left the professional pursuits of music and programming behind when he visited a children's hospital to perform a musical, and was so taken with the need there coupled with the huge difference he saw doctors making that he decided to go to medical school. This was just after he got his bachelor's degree from Rice in computer science and electrical engineering.
Doing just one thing at a time has never occurred to Segev, and especially not while he was in medical school at Johns Hopkins or during his lab years at Harvard. Those were the times when he sped up, diving very deeply into competitive swing dancing.
"For me, having pursuits outside of medicine has always been requisite," says Segev. "The hospital is a stressful environment. People are sick. People die. When home is a place of fun and singing and dance and creative expression and creative endeavors, it's easier to come to terms with the frustrations of illness and death you witnessed today."
Segev met his match when he found Sommer Gentry -- then a recent Stanford grad, now a and, oh yes, Segev's wife -- in the robust swing dancing community of Boston in 1999. He was in the lab at Harvard and she was at MIT pursuing a PhD in electrical engineering, just having generated a buzz nationally from designing a dancing robot.
The two became a team, collaborating in swing dancing competitions, on establishing a swing-dancing community and venue in Baltimore, and in the pursuit of improving the matching system for people across the U.S. who need kidney transplants and liver transplants. She brought the math and the systems design, he brought the medicine and statistics.
In recent years, the couple has consciously tried to chill out a bit. For example, when Segev and Gentry discovered slalom water skiing and loved it, they bought a boat and got a coach, but made the decision not to compete in it. Also, they no longer dance competitively, but instead try to help the next generation of competitive dancers.
"We decided we no longer wanted our hobbies to be goal-oriented, outside of the goal of getting better at what we're doing, and just because the better you get at something, the more fun it becomes," Segev says.
But it's not like he gave up his work-hard play-hard ethos altogether. He was instrumental in passing two important pieces of legislation: the Charlie W. Norwood Living Organ Donation Act of 2007, which allows the pairing of two or more intended living donors with biologically compatible recipients -- something that had been illegal before -- and the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act of 2013, which changed policy to allow HIV-positive patients in need of an organ transplant to get organs from other HIV patients.
On the fun side, he flies to Miami every other month with Gentry to train with a slalom water-skiing coach who's a world record holder in the sport. And once a month, he holds "house jams," inviting friends to come over and play instruments, sing, dance, or whatever.
At Hopkins, he works hard to make sure his students understand that having passions outside of the hospital is key for stress reduction and long-term happiness.
Says Segev, "I give all of the students working in my research group complimentary admission to all dances and dance classes at our ballroom to send the message that having hobbies outside of medicine is important, and to spread the message that music, dance, and art should play a very important role in people's lives."
Segev says he's become more conscious of what has driven him so relentlessly toward so many pursuits. This has allowed him to slow down and let all the facets of his life thus far integrate in a pleasing manner.
"There had been that constant fear of missing something," he says. "That's something that for years I struggled with. But a balance has finally emerged. Eventually, everything -- medicine, science, technology, music, the arts, mentoring and advocacy -- came together in a beautiful way, and now I get to spend my time helping people, training people in surgery, epidemiology, dance, and to sing, dance, and have a ton of fun at the same time."
"Sometimes, I look at this life and I say, 'Is this for real? It's awesome.'"