Always striving to provide excellent care with the most up-to-date research and information, Dr. Cook has been committed to his expanding his own education in more than one specialty. He has also been a respected instructor to medical students for several decades.

Dr. Cook graduated from Southern Illinois University (SIU) in Carbondale with a Bachelor of Science (BS) in General Physiology in 1984. As a pre-med student, he was encouraged to fulfill his service obligations in a healthcare setting (specifically in a local nursing home). However, he pursued student government instead, asserting that he already had an early start to his volunteer experience as an EMT in his home county for a new ambulance. He won his case — and the election — and proceeded to learn how democracy, team building, and collaboration work, developing important leadership skills that he would apply very effectively in the years to come.

Continuing his medical education, Dr. Cook came to the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine at Midwestern University where he graduated in 1988. As he tells it: “Going to medical school is quite a life-changing experience. I learned a lot about medicine and I learned a lot about myself. With the experience of being a bystander to the human grief and suffering, I got a great education, learned a lot, and was very well set for my next stage in medicine which was my residency.”

He was accepted by the University of Illinois for his residency in Family Medicine at Ravenswood Hospital with a heavy emphasis on Obstetrics. In 1991, he established his first private practice, Family Practice North, with two colleagues. Dr. Cook continued to deliver lots of babies while his passion for working in the field of addictions medicine grew.

Dr. Cook has been a member of the Teaching Faculty at Midwestern University since 1991 and both the University of Illinois Chicago (on Addictions Medicine for the Addiction Psychiatry program) and Rush University since 2018.

Education

• Midwestern University, Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.), 1988
• SIU, Bachelor of Science (BS), Physiology, General, 1984
  
  

Credentials

• American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), 1991–Present
• American Medical Association (AMA), 1991–Present
• Chicago Medical Society (CMS), 1991–Present
• American Society of Addiction Medicine (FASAM), 1991–Present
  • Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine<