Dr. Steve Nelson is the president of Louisiana University Health New Orleans. He graduated from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, where he began his career as an English major. He earned his medical degree from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and then completed his medical internship, residency, and fellowship at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.
Nelson began his career at LSU in 1984 and has been in Louisiana ever since. After many years of practice as an internist and critical care physician while also teaching as a professor, he became dean of the School of Medicine at the LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans in 2007.
Nelson will serve as interim president of LSU Health New Orleans in 2021. He will become permanent president in February 2024.
Nelson has authored or co-authored more than 250 peer-reviewed journal articles, seven books, 30 book chapters, and 250 scientific abstracts.
Nelson says he has two passions: writing and family. Nelson married his wife, Julie, 40 years ago. He has three children: David, Karen and Kevin. Their second son died at three months old.
“When you go through that process, you realize how precious every moment is with your family,” Nelson says. “My passion is doing the best I can with them.”
Why LSU?
I wanted to make a difference, and I knew that if I stayed at Hopkins, no matter how successful I was, I couldn't change the university.
It’s why I came to LSU, and it’s why I’ve stayed, even though I’ve had multiple opportunities to quit.
When I first came to LSU, I was in healthcare, and half of my time was spent working with patients, primarily in the ICU, respiratory consultations, etc. As my career progressed, I spent less time working with patients.
I continue to do research. I'm still an NIH-funded researcher, but I have more administrative responsibilities. When I was dean, I had a lot of influence over what was going on in the medical school, but not so much in the other departments.
Today, how we treat and care for patients is a multidisciplinary approach involving doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and all other specialists.
Becoming dean gives me the opportunity to have a broader reach and impact in medical education and training.
A lot of people think, “If I get sick, I can go to Texas. I can go to Alabama, the University of Alabama, Houston, Dallas.”
But if you're in a car accident, have a heart attack, suffer a stroke, or get a serious infection, you need to get to the nearest hospital — and hope that the doctors, nurses, and respiratory therapists there are well-trained.
Providing the best possible health care to everyone is in the public interest. The students I train may become the doctors who see me when I go to the hospital. I take that very seriously.
How much of your discussions with deans and students are focused on the health needs of Louisiana?
Since I arrived at LSU, we've probably recruited over 500 physicians from around the country.
Why are we able to employ so many people here? There are two reasons.
The people of Louisiana love Louisiana, and if I can give these doctors a chance to come back, that means a lot to me. The people of this state love this state more than any other place I've ever been.
The other thing is, they want to make a difference, and as I said, that's why I came here.
These are people who come from great institutions like Harvard, Duke, Vanderbilt, Texas, and they come to Louisiana wanting to make a difference, they want to impact the people they serve.
And it's our job during the interview process for the students that we accept, whether they're in medical school or nursing school, to evaluate why they want to enter this profession and why they've chosen this path.
A big factor is their passion for caring for underserved populations.
What new initiatives or research are you excited about at LSU?
What this state needs more than anything is to have a designated National Cancer Institute Center, a cancer center.
There aren't any in Louisiana, there aren't any in Mississippi, there aren't any in Arkansas.
This will be transformative in a state with high cancer numbers and poor prognosis due to delayed access to diagnosis and treatment, something that has been my passion for over a decade.
Now others realize how important this is, and we've all worked together toward this goal, including Governor Jeff Landry, Governor John Bel Edwards, Senator Cassidy, Senator Kennedy, and others.
It will probably take five to seven years to get there, but it is a place worth going to. This is what we need to do to improve health care.
Receiving NCI designation, like MD Anderson in Houston and UAB in Alabama, also improves health care at all levels — it floats all ships and provides better health care for all.
It is estimated that thousands of patients leave Louisiana each year to receive cancer treatment. This is unreasonable. No one should have to leave their home to receive cancer treatment, and not everyone can afford the cost.
That's my number one priority.
How has technology changed the way you work? Has it stayed the same?
I'm an intensive care physician, so there was a lot of machinery and electronics and lines and breast suction machines and buzzers and bells and stuff, and someone asked me, “What do you think?”
“There's so much technology here. It's really overwhelming. What's your favorite technology?”
I said stethoscope.
All technology exists between the doctor and the patient, but when I place a stethoscope over a person's chest with my own hand, I can connect with them as the patient and hear their heartbeat.
It's so easy to distance yourself: when you go to the doctor now, there's a good chance you'll be sitting there and the doctor will be sitting in front of a computer.
At times, while technology can be a great help, it can also disconnect us from our patients.
What's really amazing is the connection you have with your patients. That's something very special in medicine and health. I don't think you'll find that anywhere else.
Patients tell you things they wouldn't tell anyone else. It's like a sacred bond. Sometimes I think technology is preventing that from happening. I don't think that's a good thing.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
