Mark C. Knouse, MD

My general philosophy of medicine and treating patients is that I believe every patient requires the same level of excellent care. We always give 110 percent effort to each patient care problem. Our goal is to try to make a rapid diagnosis and institute an extremely effective treatment plan. In this regard we need to be committed fully to each patient every day, all the time so that we may provide the best level of service to our patients here at Lehigh Valley Health Network. We believe that each patient should be treated with the best scientific technology, but also with as much compassion as possible, thus combining the best of science and the art of medicine.

I had several relatives who were physicians. They were great role models for me in my younger years. I always looked up to them as well-regarded professionals in their field. They were extremely well-regarded within our family as well. They were very compassionate people who went out of their way to help others. They were very successful in their scientific careers. This greatly influenced my decision to enter the field of medicine. I chose the field of infectious diseases because our cases are always fascinating and at times quite difficult. Diagnosis often requires a significant amount of investigation, often "sleuthing" in a detective-style fashion that I find extremely exciting. In our field there are always new diseases, such as the recent SARS epidemic, Avian influenza and many others that require immediate action. This keeps the level of scientific interest quite high and makes the job very challenging, and I enjoy that.

At the present time I have very little spare time. The free time I do have I enjoy with my family, often at sporting events or other family outings. I do enjoy photography as a hobby and hopefully will be able to devote more time to that in the near future.