I think I was at the very first CDI that Stanford and Pittsburgh jointly did. For the students, everything I've heard is that it's one of the greatest experiences of their lives because it's the one opportunity they get to think in terms of career as opposed to specific research projects and educational opportunities, to hear people's experiences, people who have already gone through the system.

I love teaching. That's one of those things I don't want to give up. Actually seeing people who come to the CDI and later become very good in their careers, there's a certain personal satisfaction in seeing that happen. But I do love teaching. I think that's probably the common denominator for everybody who attends most of the CDIs on the faculty side. And it's a lot of time; it's at least three full days, and if there's preparation before time, there is more added to it as well. So it is a commitment by the faculty at both institutions.

I get emails even now from people who were at CDIs a number of years ago. Emails that say, "Can you just give me a clue as to where I should go to find out this, that and the other?" Remember that a lot of the CDI participants are from institutions that don't have very strong research orientations. And in absence of research orientations, chances are they don't have access to biostatisticians. And so giving two or three seconds on an email response is no big problem for me. And so I do hear from them, yes. I think probably far more than most of the faculty members do.