Michael Wool
- Producer
- Actor
The hardest thing about writing about Michael Wool is figuring out what he is. He's a licensed physician who develops products for the medical industry while producing films and publishing a website for the medical profession. And he's certainly not afraid to take risks.
while attending Stanford Medical School, he actually marketed an empty wine bottle as a gag gift, labeled "Drought Le Drought." That gag earned him a spot on the Tonight Show. His unpredictable streak continued even after he earned his M.D. from George Washington University and began solo practice in 1985 -- he opened an ice cream parlor called Scoops.
Between 1985 and 1992 he also served on the research staff at University of California San Francisco and involved in intensive care medicine. He's now an attending physician at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles and a research physician for AIDS clinical research at UCLA medical center. And that's barely half of it.
In 1987 Wool started Digitcare, a company which designs and sells latex gloves to the medical industry to address the "need for a quality product that would address universal precautions and concerns in the face of the HIV epidemic."
That same year Wool entered the UCLA School of Motion Picture and Television Screenwriting. At the prestigious Sundance Film workshop he studied under noted "script doctor" Robert Towne. For many years he was the WGA's consultant in film and medicine guiding actors, writers and directors in medical scenes. He took this training and started two production companies -- Caduceus and Forbidden City International involved in healthcare multimedia and feature motion picture and documentary production and distribution. He co-produced the critically acclaimed and award winning films "Latter Days" and "Withdrawal From Gaza". Caduceus's companion company, Academy of Continuing Education Programs, dedicated to accredited medicine and media. Together with some partners, he built Zenalta/Orbital Intermedia and received accolades from the Medical Media Marketing Association for his groundbreaking 1990's streaming medical education and fully integrated pharma industry, key opinion physician, patient interactive online community known as the "Laureate Forum. Of late he is doing research in viral illnesses and immunity/longevity as it relates to optimum ketosis in the human.
By combining his own active research with that of his companies, Wool has integrated education, business and media for the medical community while staying on the cutting edge of technology. At the same time, he remains an actively-practicing doctor.
"My free time is usually spent going off to the park or beach with a notepad to draw, paint or write," says Wool.
"There is always an opportunity. Recognize the opportunity," he advises. "Obtain the resources, and not necessarily financial, to act on the opportunity. Optimize the use of those resources and in an emergency, take your pulse first."
Wool is married to Kelly Knapp.