Houston Radiologist Daniel Roubein Centers Life on Family, Faith and Nonprofit Mammography Center

by Rae Miller

When Dr. Daniel Roubein has to tell a patient she has breast cancer he never forgets that -- while it's a part of his job – it's the first time the woman sitting across from him is hearing it.

"There is nothing routine about it," Roubein says. "It's never hard for me to remember that."

Roubein is the radiologist at The Rose Galleria, a nonprofit breast cancer center that provides uninsured and insured women mammography screening, diagnosis and early access to treatment.

He remembers the first time he heard about The Rose. It was during a casual telephone conversation.

"I said hold on, wait a minute, I really want to hear more about this place," Roubein says. "As I learned more about the mission of The Rose and the concept that insured women can get topnotch care while at the same time provide an entryway to women who have no insurance, I felt it was a perfect match for me."

The Rose Galleria
In late 2009, Roubein joined The Rose Galleria. In February 2010, the state-of-the-art, 8,000 square-foot mammography center celebrated its grand opening. The Rose, a 24-year-old organization that is funded by numerous corporations and Houston foundations including Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Houston Affiliate, operates another diagnostic center in southeast Houston and a mobile mammography program that serves Harris and eight other counties.

"Things fell into place at The Rose Galleria like it was meant to be," Roubein says.

Breast imaging has been a big part of his 20-year radiology career.

In 2005, he opened a private practice in Bellaire. In the same year, he launched Radiology Reading Centers of America.

Before that, in 1993, he was staff radiologist and chairman of the Department of Radiology at Christus Hospital-St. Elizabeth, a 400-bed medical center in Beaumont.

Roubein, a native of Highland Park, N.J., is a senior member of the American Society of Neuroradiology. He also holds memberships in the Radiological Society of North America, the Texas Medical Association, the Houston Radiological Society and the Society of Breast Imaging.

A Writer

He is also a writer.

"It is possible," he says, "to take complicated medical topics and present them in a way that sparks interest."

He does just that as a guest medical columnist for The Galveston County Daily News and in his weekly medical columns for Absolutely! Katy, Absolutely! Memorial and Absolutely! In the Loop. The magazines are published in print and online.

His columns, titled "The Radiologist's View," can also be found on his Facebook page, also called “The Radiologist’s View.”

Roubein, who lives in Bellaire, is active in Houston's Jewish community.

He is a member of the Jewish Federation of Greater Houston's Yom Limmud committee and holds several leadership positions at Congregation Beth Yeshurun, including chairman of the membership committee, vice president of the synagogue’s board of trustees and vice president of the board of trustees for Beth Yeshurun Day School. He is also a member of the school’s capital campaign committee and a lay leader for the Congregation’s Saturday morning sanctuary services.

Roubein Family

Roubein, 47, has been married for 15 years to Toiee. The couple has three sons – Zachary, 12, David, 10 and Jacob, 8.

He not only attends his boys’ baseball games, he also shows up for practice and coaches Little League.

Roubein wants his sons to be able to say “when I was growing up, my dad was there. My goal is to have dinner with my family every single night."

He says he can balance it all because he learned from the best – his own parents. His mother Blanche is a retired teacher who lives in Houston.

His father, Isaac Roubein, PhD, who passed away in May 2009, retired as a deputy director of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

"My father had an incredible work ethic," Roubein says. "He was a very humble person. He didn't talk much about his accomplishments, but he was a respected researcher." He considers his father to be one of his greatest mentors.

"My father was an unbelievable family man and completely dedicated to his Jewish faith," says Roubein.

Roubein is also dedicated. In 2008, he earned a Master of Science degree in Jewish Studies with a concentration in Talmud and Medieval Jewish Studies from Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies in Chicago.
Women Should Not Die of Breast Cancer

He earned his medical degree in 1987 from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in Shreveport, where he also won two research grants. In 1991, he earned the Outstanding Resident Achievement Award at LSU while completing his residency in diagnostic radiology.

He has held other jobs. Over the years he has worked as a Kroger cashier, an organic chemistry teaching assistant, a medical lab assistant, a waiter and a men's clothing salesman. From 1981 to 1983 he worked as a licensed realtor selling and managing commercial real estate.

But today, it is his work as radiologist for The Rose Galleria that has his heart.

“Women should die of old age,” says Roubein. “Not breast cancer.”

For more information about The Rose, please visit the organization’s website, www.therose.org. To schedule an appointment at The Rose Galleria or The Rose Southeast, call (713) 668-2996.