H. Joachim Deeg, MD

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Dr. H. Joachim Deeg: Gratified when clinical observations, laboratory work improve therapy

“In the beginning, I wanted some adventure,” says Dr. H. Joachim Deeg speaking about his days after finishing medical school. “I didn’t want to settle into a routine. It was simple as that.”

After completing medical school in his home country, Germany, with the encouragement of a professor whom he admired, Deeg traveled to the United States where he completed internship and residency training at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. Looking to the future, Deeg then applied to various research centers, including the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, which had just opened. He arrived in June 1976.

“When I can to the United States, I thought I’d stay a year or two, he says, but 10 years later, ‘it became my life,’” he says, quoting a favored poet, David Whyte. “This has been a great place to work.”

Deeg enjoys writing and communicating about his research, which centers on understanding how leukemia develops, and mentoring young people who come through the fellowship program. He finds both aspects of his career rewarding and productive.

“It’s gratifying to work on the transplant ward two months of the year,” he says. “But it is also exciting to then go back and do preclinical research. One of the great assets to working here is the effort made by the Hutchinson Center to protect investigators’ time so they can concentrate on research and allow their minds to create new approaches to treating disease. It’s a privilege to be here, but with that comes also an obligation to strive for the best and speak up when things aren’t right.”

Working for the good of his patients, Deeg believes that people appreciate openness, “while being gentle and polite, of course,” he says. “But patients do not want sugar-coating; they want honesty and partners in their care.”

Deeg believes his approach to patient care can be somewhat unconventional. “I can be very spontaneous, talking through difficult problems without necessarily arranging for a formal meeting with various other participants,” he says. “This may at times be challenging to nurses and other attending physicians, however, I believe the patients appreciate it.”

When he’s able to, he travels professionally, often adding a day or two to a trip to replenish his soul. He and his wife, who is French, share three children, one of whom has lived abroad for several years. They maintain close ties with their extended families in Europe and have an apartment in France that Deeg isn’t able to use as often as he’d like. But, he enjoys connecting with friends the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper, and last year celebrated his 40th reunion with school chums he graduated with from secondary school in Germany. In his spare time, Deeg will write poetry and reads non-medicine-related books as often as possible.