Richard Hellman, M.D., came to study and practice medicine by way of mathematics, and his choice to specialize in endocrinology grew from an increasingly prevalent disease that some of his family members had, including his mother.
Hellman is a clinical endocrinologist, and founder and managing partner of Hellman & Rosen Endocrine Associates in Kansas City, Missouri. He started the practice in 1981. His partner, Howard Rosen, M.D., who’s also a clinical endocrinologist, joined the practice in 1989.
Hellman will receive the Outstanding Clinical Endocrinologist Award from the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists on May 27. It’ll be the first time a Kansas City-area endocrinologist will receive the award, and the third award he’s received in the past year.
“It is a great honor,” Hellman said of the endocrinologists association’s award. “The caliber of the people who have preceded me is extraordinary — extraordinary people from all over the world. It is a very special moment, and I’m deeply grateful.”
Hellman was born in the Bronx, New York, and grew up there and in Mount Vernon, New York. He studied mathematics as an undergraduate at New York University and received his medical degree from Chicago Medical School.
Several of his family members had type 1 diabetes, which typically is diagnosed in children and young adults. His mother contracted the disease later in life, and his family’s experience with diabetes fueled his interest in endocrinology.
“To me, endocrinology was about people and about science,” he said. “Some of the greatest advances in science have been in endocrinology, and it’s constantly changing. New things are coming up, puzzles that still need to be solved.”
Hellman also recently received the American Diabetes Association’s Distinguished Reviewer Award for 2015, which is given for peer-reviewing scientific articles. He brings his experience as a physician and a scientist to reviewing the articles, and to focusing on ensuring safety and reducing medical errors.
“I think that there are so many aspects in which you can look at science and new clinical information, and the advantages of taking care of people one person at a time is an invaluable perspective as you look at the science,” he said. “(Peer-reviewing articles) has two aspects: Is it good science? Did they prove what they’d set out to prove? And (the second aspect is) how it fits into what we know and what we use to take care of people. … My goal isn’t to find flaws in the articles, but to help make them better.”
Last October, Hellman also received an award from the Kansas City Medical Society for innovation in his treatment of his patients, the first award of its kind given by the society in its 132-year history.
“Although this award was given to me, I consider my partner and friend, Howard Rosen, also deserving of this award, (because) it would not have happened without the outstanding work and care he provides daily, as well as the other key members of our clinical team,” Hellman said.
He knew “from the start that it takes a team to give first-class diabetes care,” he said.
“I started with a nurse who was a diabetes educator, and a dietician who also was,” Hellman said. “We were the first in the community to do that with adults, the team approach. … And we were the only one in the community to link the care we were giving to people to studying it, where we really proved that what we were providing to people (improved their) longevity and kidney health.”
Other innovations Hellman, Rosen and their team incorporate into their practice are a method of checking on one another’s work to reduce medical errors and an emphasis on ongoing staff training, most of which Hellman conducts.
“So, twice a week, my clinical staff gets together and we go through education so we can make sure our team is doing well (and) that all the work of our team is double-checked,” he said. “All of these things contributed to what the Kansas City Medical Society saw as innovative.”
Hellman also has been a clinical professor of endocrinology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine for 20 years, and “part of the Jewish community in Kansas City for a long time,” he said. He was a member of The Temple, Congregation B’nai Jehudah for a number of years and is a founding member of Congregation Beth Torah. He lives in Leawood with his wife, Julie Hellman.
“One of the reasons why I’m still in Kansas City is that I really like our community,” he said. “I like Kansas City in general — the fine arts, and our Jewish community, (which is) really a very interesting community that’s very open to each other — and it’s a nice place to live and be with family.”
Hellman’s wife has been an integral part not only his personal life but also his professional life, he said. She won a national award for endocrine nursing about 10 years ago, and she has co-authored some of his research reports, including one on a 15-year diabetes-outcome study.
“We spent many hours for more than two years after we closed the study, to analyze it and make sure it was scientifically sound,” Hellman said. “We’d finish work at 8 o’clock at night and spend several hours after supper working on it. … For every man who’s successful, there stands behind him a surprised wife.”
Hellman came from a family of mathematicians. Some of them may have been surprised by his choice of medicine as his career. And he himself reacted with surprise to the key experience that made him want to become a physician.
“No one in our family had been in medicine,” he said. “When I was 12, I developed warts on my fingers. My mother tried to find the name of a good dermatologist. She found Dr. Abraham Chargin, and one day I had a 7 o’clock appointment to see him. I took the train from Grand Central Station (in New York City) and then the subway. I walked in, and there was this guy, and he looked old. He was old – 91 years old.
“He took me into his office,” Hellman said. “I told him the problem, and he looked at it. Brushing back a tear, I turned to him and said ‘How much is it?’ He said ‘$5.’ I said, ‘$5? That’s too little.’ He took me to his desk and opened a drawer, and it was filled with $5 bills. ‘I don’t need these,’ he said. ‘I don’t want them. But if I don’t charge for my services, then people will think they’re worth nothing.’”
On his way back home that day, Hellman pondered his visit with the doctor.
“I was thinking that, my goodness, he’s 91 and he’s as excited about his profession as when he started,” Hellman said. “What kind of profession is it that you’d enjoy it like that? I decided that’s what I really wanted. All these years later, I’m as excited about seeing my next patient as I was when I started.”
