Unbelievably Jeannette Stein, MD, joined Duke GIM faculty in 1990. She is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in Duke General Internal Medicine and a Primary Care Physician at the Durham VA. Her special interest and expertise is the complex, home based care of veterans. Our interview tells more about this role and about her life outside of her career.
Where do you work?
I work at the Durham VA Health Care System, where I am a primary care physician and serve as Medical Director of the Home-Based Primary Care and Transitional Care Programs. I also supervise in the VA’s PRIME Medicine resident teaching clinic. Over the years I have worked in the VA Emergency Department, on the inpatient teaching service at Duke Regional Hospital, and at the Duke Outpatient Clinic. I learn constantly from my physician colleagues, my mid-level colleagues, and my resident colleagues.
What brought you to Duke?
I grew up in Chapel Hill as one of 5 children of 2 academic physician parents on a small farm with horses, many other animals and crops. Chapel Hill was a small community then. Following medical internship at Dartmouth, I completed residency at UNC. After residency I served as Co-Director of Internal Medicine at Lincoln Community Health Center, which included supervising Duke residents at Duke Regional Hospital. In 1990, I moved from Lincoln to the VA as a clinician-educator in Ambulatory Care. My husband, Roy Stein, is an addiction psychiatrist, on the Duke Psychiatry Faculty and at the VA Medical Center. His Duke affiliation caused me to look at Duke & at the VA Hospital.
What are your interests in the field?
I am interested in patients with high medical complexity, home-based care and transitions of care from hospital to home. As Medical Director of Home Based Primary Care & the Transitional Care Programs, at the VA Medical Center, I am the collaborating, or supervising, physician for 9 mid-level practitioners, physician assistants and nurse practitioners. Our multi-disciplinary team provides home-based care to approximately 200 veterans who have difficulty coming into the clinic. These include home ventilator patients and other, mostly elderly, chronically-ill patients, including WWII Veterans. We provide home care experiences for Duke Geriatrics fellows & other learners.
What are your hobbies or interests outside of work?
Roy and I have raised 3 wonderful children, Sarah, Jake, and Eva. My favorite activities include reading, knitting, quilting, hiking, walking and exploring the outdoors. I love & have dogs, and now care for our beloved elderly German Shepherd, Leila.
Any trips you've taken recently that you would like to share?
I have taken recent trips to Colorado to visit our two daughters and explore the National Parks of the Rocky Mountains and desert Southwest.
What is a fun fact about yourself?
I am an identical twin; my twin, Amelia Drake, is a Pediatric Otolaryngologist, and serves in the Dean’s Office as a dean of Academic programs at UNC at the UNC School of Medicine. I take care of the very elderly and she takes care of the very young.