Douglas E. Wood, MD
“My profession is a privilege and I hope to help better patients’ lives.”
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. His intellectual interests in anatomy, physiology, and the science of medicine nearly led him to becoming a marine biologist, but he decided to merge his interests and do something that would ultimately help people.
“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.”
Thoracic surgery takes that desire one step further for Wood.
“I like the fairly clear outcomes I get with being a surgeon,” he says. “It is rewarding for me to see the concrete outcomes that go with surgery, to see the reward in the successful removal of a lung cancer. It’s much more immediate than some of the other interventions that we do in medicine.”
During his time at Harvard Medical School, Wood became interested in cardio-thoracic surgery and eventually chose specialty training in heart and lung surgery. Realizing that there were a lot of heart surgeons at the time, Wood switched gears and decided to focus his talents on thoracic surgery. “There weren’t enough specialists and I found thoracic surgery fascinating; 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.
A frequent traveler for work and for fun, Wood did fellowship training in Sydney, Australia and returns to see friends there every two years and makes frequent trips to Europe, Asia, and South America, often with his family in-tow.
But when it comes to down time, Wood and his family escape to their mountain home in eastern Washington. “It’s where we go to teach my daughters the value of being quiet and appreciating nature,” he says.
Douglas E. Wood, MD
Dr. Wood is recognized internationally as a leading expert in lung cancer and thoracic surgery and is chief of General Thoracic Surgery at UW Medical Center.Patient Care Philosophy:
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.
Title
- Professor and Chief, General Thoracic Surgery, Endowed Chair in Lung Cancer Research, University of Washington School of Medicine
Clinical Expertise:
Tracheobronchial reconstruction and endobronchial therapeutics. Thoracic surgery and surgical oncology (lung, esophagus, mediastinum, chest wall). Lung transplantation, lung reduction. Primary airway tumors, other mediastinal tumors and other chest wall tumors.
Education And Training:
- Harvard Medical School, Boston, 1983
- Residencies: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, General Surgery, 1983-86; 1987-89
- Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Cardiothoracic Surgery, 1989-91
- Fellowship: Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, Australia, Endocrine and Vascular Surgery, 1986-87
More Information:
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