David Sterken, MD

Clinical Assistant Professor
Division of Hospital Medicine

Medical School: University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Philadelphia, PA
Residency: Duke University Medicine Center, Durham, NC (Internal Medicine)
Fellowship: UCSF Medical Center, San Francisco, CA (Academic Hospital Medicine)

Joined the Department of Medicine as a faculty member:September2019

What is your primary professional focus in any or all of our mission areas (clinical, research, and/or medical education)?
My focus is still fairly broad, but I am interested in diagnostic errors research and medical education, particularly in the area of clinical reasoning.

What drew you to UW-Madison and the Department of Medicine?
I grew up here, went to college at UW–Madison and did research in the hospital, so I was familiar with the environment at UW and eager to come back home.

What are you most excited about during your first year with the department in this role?
I'm looking forward to getting more comfortable with solo practice and honing my clinical skills after a year of academic hospital medicine fellowship with less clinical time.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not working?
I enjoy spending time with friends and family, a few solo and team sports, and hobbies, including playing guitar.

Favorite piece of advice from a mentor or inspiring figure in your life?
The most influential advice that I have heard regarding clinical medicine is that the difference between becoming experienced over time and becoming an expert over time is deliberate practice, so I am working on building habits of deliberate practice.