The Founder

Peter Schick – The Surgeon, The Scientist, The Survivor

A successful surgeon and Assistant Professor of Medicine at UCLA, Peter Schick learned in 1986 that while performing an operation, he had become infected with the AIDS virus. Then HIV infection was a death sentence, yet Peter Schick has battled back. In 2003, he established the Peter Schick Foundation to  

• provide education for all people regarding HIV / AIDS,
• assist HIV positive people to live longer, healthier lives and
• research the protocols of early treatment of HIV.

Through the foundation that bears his name, Peter Schick reaches out to other HIV survivors so that they know they are not alone.

A Chicago native and graduate of the University of Rochester, Peter Schick graduated from the University of Colorado Medical School in 1969. He went on to intern at Harbor General Hospital. A Vietnam Era Veteran, Lieutenant Peter Schick, US Army, served his medical residency and began his surgical residency at the Veteran’s Administration Wadsworth Hospital in Los Angeles. Peter Schick’s professional focus as a scientist and surgeon has been dedicated to immunology, clinical cancer and hyperthermia. His professional associations and affiliations have included surgical research at Harbor General, a fellowship in surgical oncology at the City of Hope, Surgical Executive Committee Chairman of Long Beach General Hospital, membership on the Board of Directors of the Harbor / UCLA Research Institute, Surgical Committee Advisor of the Long Beach Community Hospital, Chief of Surgery Service at Long Beach General Hospital and Chief of Surgical Oncology at Harbor / UCLA Medical Center. He also established a private practice in general and oncologic surgery and an association with the Harriman Jones Medical Group. Peter Schick’s research has been published in the American Journal of Surgery, Journal of Surgical Oncology and Journal of Surgical Research. In addition to serving as Chairman of the Board of the Peter Schick Foundation, he now draws about his extensive clinical and laboratory experience to work as a professional consultant and educator. 

Through the educational initiatives of the foundation, medical practitioners and patients have grown to rely on a professional on-line knowledge base about HIV / AIDS at www.schick-foundation.org .  Its thoroughness is unique, since it was assembled by a physician fighting the disease himself. AIDS infections are still growing. Public education is essential in providing an understanding of the epidemic, how it is spread, how to find out if one is infected, what to do if one becomes infected, how not to transmit an infection, and how to get treatment. With early detection and treatment, HIV positive patients can now live longer, healthier, and happier lives. 

Research is the other focus of the foundation. Peter Schick is currently establishing alternative protocols for early treatment of HIV that could provide for more than long term maintenance on expensive, toxic medication. These pending clinical trials have the potential of finally eradicating HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.