Medicine is a family business

If you can remember growing up as a child, then you can probably remember the part of your life your parents tried to influence your career choice. If you were one of those parents, you can only imagine how nice that dream would be. For Dr. Mark J. Buchfuhrer, that dream came true.

His daughter, Julia Buchfuhrer, is a young physician opening her practice in Downey next week after finishing nine years of medical training. She is opening her clinic inside her father’s office, where they will be working side by side.

Dr. Mark Buchfuhrer is a pulmonary disease and sleep medicine specialist and also a professor at Stanford, teaching sleep medicine. He was the son of two Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, survivors of the Holocaust. His parents had nothing when they immigrated to Canada but built a decent life, so it was important to Dr. Buchfuhrer that he “become someone important.”

He completed his training at the University of Toronto where he met his wife. On their honeymoon in June of 1980, he drove eight days to California to start his pulmonary fellowship at Harbor UCLA. After the fellowship, he found a job in Downey and has worked here for 39 years this August. He eventually opened his own practice about 20 years ago.

He has always appreciated working with this population because, he says, “Downey patients tend to be very appreciative and really care about their health.”

Dr. Buchfuhrer has three kids, two boys and one girl, and hoped for all of them to be physicians like him. His daughter, Julia Buchfuhrer, had no interest in becoming a physician until getting plenty of injuries playing rugby for Long Beach city’s team, Belmont Shore Women’s Rugby Club, and at UC Davis as an undergrad.

“This is what made me want to be a doctor and ultimately a rheumatologist,” Dr. Julia Buchfuhrer said. “I originally thought I wanted to be an orthopedist, but then I realized I wanted to help patients avoid surgery and treat them medically rather than surgically—hence rheumatology.”

Dr. Julia will be practicing rheumatology, which primarily deals with arthritis disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and osteoarthritis. She expressed her gratitude for being able to work with her father, starting a father daughter duo.

“It feels amazing,” she said. “During medical school and residency we had really been pretty good buddies. We did all of the above sports (biking, hiking, mountain biking, skiing, scuba diving) also every weekend together. I’ve been gone the last two years and haven’t really visited given COVID, so it feels great to be able to work side-by-side with him as well as come home.

“I remember going to my father’s office in Downey as a little girl for Father-Daughter Day when he was working for a larger medical center. It’s definitely come full circle.”

Fulfilling her dream of becoming a doctor was not easy. In total she completed 13 years of school and nine years of medical training. The breakdown is: four years undergrad, four years medical school, three years internal medicine residency, and two years rheumatology fellowship which ended June 30.

“It’s been a rough go, working often 12 hour days, 6-7 days a week, and not infrequently doing 24-hour shifts,” Dr. Julia said. “Many of my 24 hour shifts in residency were at Long Beach Memorial Hospital working in the ICU. With that said, the activities I did with my dad were a huge de-stressor. Not only physically exercising and being in nature but also spending time doing these things with my father and enjoying time with him was so good for getting me through those times.”

Julia and her father have shared so many similar life experiences and have achieved a lot together, they even co-wrote a chapter of a sleep medicine book which was published within the last year. This book was written primarily by Stanford professors. Julia mentioned that about six years ago, she spent many months of medical school training in the Stanford sleep medicine clinic by her father’s side.

Though they do different specialties, many of their patients overlap. For example, many patients with rheumatic conditions have lung problems such as interstitial lung disease and thus need to see a pulmonologist as well. Therefore, Dr. Jullia anticipates referring patients to her father and working with him very closely on mutual patients.

She said she is excited to start this journey with her best friend, father and partner in health.

Her advice to anyone who would like to become a physician is: “It is a long road so you have to be sure it is something you want to do with every bit of your heart and being. If that’s the case, then the hard work will come much easier—and it is hard work. It has become so competitive to get into medical school these days that good grades and MCAT scores aren’t enough. They want to see that you are well rounded so you need to have many extra-curricular activities as I have with my father.

“I have to say, at every single stage in my application process—from medical school to residency to fellowship—I was interviewed and a major portion of the interview we talked about my time playing rugby. Rugby absolutely helped me get where I am along with all of the other fun things my father and I enjoy together.”

Dr. Julia is currently mentoring students trying to get into medical school because she thinks it is such a great profession and one that she personally enjoys so much. She also emphasized that there is a large shortage of rheumatologists, especially in the greater Downey area, with most rheumatologists booked up for three or more months. However, because she is new, Dr. Julia is able to see patients much sooner than that.

“I will open July 14,” she said. “My practice name is JB Arthritis and Rheumatology Center. The ‘JB’ are my initials.”

The office is located at 11480 Brookshire Ave., suite 108, in Downey.