MD Local: Deren Sinkowitz, MD

Written by Diane Krieger | Photographed by Siri Berting

If he isn’t holding a stethoscope, chances are Deren Sinkowitz, MD, has a book in his hands. The Torrance Memorial pulmonologist is an unapologetic bibliomaniac. On weekends you’ll likely find him flipping through dusty volumes at the Rose Bowl Flea Market or the Long Beach Antique Market.

“I collect books,” he says. “The house is overflowing with them.”

There’s no overarching theme to his collecting. He and his wife, Mae, “just buy what we want to read, which is really everything.” Biographies, science, American history, literature—“whatever catches our eye.”

For a special treat, they’ll trek to Ojai, home of Bart’s Books, touted as the largest outdoor independent bookstore in America. “There’s almost a mile of books, and we just get lost in them,” Dr. Sinkowitz says.

It all started in early childhood with visits to his great uncle’s Manhattan apartment. The Lower East Side neighborhood was teeming with used bookstores. Those visits also exposed young Deren to his uncle’s medical practice on the first floor.

By middle school, he knew he wanted to be a doctor. He attended Johns Hopkins University, earned his MD at New York Medical College, and completed his residency and pulmonary/critical care fellowships at UCLA. His first job was in the respiratory unit at St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach, where he later helmed the teaching program.

Curious about management, Dr. Sinkowitz signed up for a health care leadership certificate program at Cal State Long Beach and went on to get an MBA from USC in 1997. But he ultimately decided against a career in hospital administration.

Instead, Dr. Sinkowitz entered private practice in Torrance, teaching part time at UCLA and leading numerous clinical trials on emerging drugs. He’s been affiliated with Torrance Memorial since 2003, including 15 years as medical director of the critical care and respiratory care units. In 2018 he joined the Torrance Memorial Physician Network, practicing general pulmonary critical care.

Along with these professional pursuits, family life has filled Dr. Sinkowitz’s days. He’s been married for 27 years to Mae, whom he met on a blind date. They have two adult sons, Jake and Ian.

When the boys were younger, Dr. Sinkowitz spent many hours on the sidelines of soccer fields. Both sons played club soccer, and Ian went on to compete in college. His Tufts University team won the NCAA Division III title during Ian’s freshman year.

When they aren’t book-hunting, you’ll find the Sinkowitzes at gallery openings and art shows around Los Angeles. “We’re definitely museum fanatics—mainly art museums but also history and science museums,” he says.

Mae is an artist. She makes and sells fine jewelry. She also paints. The dining room of their Manhattan Beach home has been converted into a jewelry-making workspace and art gallery.

On a recent trip to Spain—their third—the Sinkowitzes spent days inside Madrid’s big-three art museums: the Prado, Reina Sofia and the Thyssen-Bornemisza. The trip also provided opportunities for Dr. Sinkowitz to speak Spanish. It’s his lifelong goal to become fluent.

“I’ve been trying on and off since fifth grade,” he notes sheepishly. He’d achieved some fluency as a pulmonary fellow during a rotation in Costa Rica, but “then it sort of went away.”

Before the pandemic, he’d travel to a coastal town in Honduras on annual medical missions. His then-teenage son Jake sometimes tagged along. Today Jake is starting his second year of medical school at Georgetown University.

As for Dr. Sinkowitz, when he isn’t seeing patients, he’s usually reading. Lately he has been dipping into medical tomes, gearing up for his critical-care recertification exam.

“This will be my fourth and last time,” says the 65-year-old pulmonologist, anticipating a stage of life when he can finally let loose his unbridled bibliomania.