Dr. Douglas E. Wood: “My profession is a privilege and I hope to help better patients’ lives.”
I try to take care of each patient as if they were a member of my own family. I strongly believe in prompt and efficient evaluation and clear explanations to help patients make good decisions. Our goal is that every cancer patient will have a work-up completed and a treatment plan defined within a few days of their first phone call to our office.
Dr. Douglas E. Wood grew up on a farm in the rural Midwest. He and his sister were the first from their family to go to college.
“I decided to become a doctor because I enjoyed science and biology,” he says. “I wanted to have a positive impact on those around me. It’s a special privilege to be a physician,” he says. “We all do it in our own way, but to be a scientist and have the privilege of helping people to live better, longer, happier lives is exciting. It’s a special thing to do and that was attractive to me.”
During his time at Harvard Medical School, Wood became interested in cardio-thoracic surgery and eventually chose specialty training in heart and lung surgery. “I liked the technical aspects and variety, and, there was a need for thoracic surgeons since I saw that many patients were not getting the highest level of care, simply due to inadequate access to thoracic specialists,” he says.
Wood sees patients at UW Medical Center from all over the Northwest. “What I wanted to be was a resource for people who can’t get this level of care in their hometown,” he says. “Most of my patients have complex problems and I spend a lot of time with them discussing and decision making – there’s no replacement for that. Patients need education and choices. I’m their advocate and try to educate them in lay language so they understand and feel empowered.”
As with many cancers, treatment choices depend in great part to accurate staging. “We always want to give the benefit of the doubt to the patient, rather than to the cancer,” Wood says. He prefers to have a biopsy or whatever is necessary to clarify any uncertainties.
“Volume relates to better outcomes,” Wood says. He performs about 450 thoracic surgeries a year. Many surgeons doing thoracic surgery may only perform a handful of similar surgeries each year, and yet local politics or economics may prevent patients from being referred to specialty centers like the UW Medical Center and SCCA. “I try to treat each patient as I would want my own family to be treated, including being their advocate to get the best physician for their problem, and to get their testing completed quickly and efficiently,” Wood says. “My hope is that other physicians will carry forward the same philosophy and not limit their patients from being cared for at a regional specialty center. If it is what they would want for themselves, then it must be what is best for their patients as well.” At UW Medical Center, the entire thoracic team performs 1,500 surgeries a year, making it the largest thoracic program in the western United States.
