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I’m Dr. Richard McGee, I’m a medical oncologist at the Swedish Cancer Institute in Edmonds.
Medical oncology is a branch of internal medicine which involves the treatment of cancer patients,
it involves management of the entire patient, including when they get radiation, when they
get surgery, and all the cancer chemo therapy as well as the general medical care that occurs
during their treatment. Each patient that comes in that we treat, I want to take care
of in a way that makes it personal for them, at the same time applying the best we have
in science and knowledge about how to treat their problem. There’s a saying in medicine
that the patient will tell you what’s wrong with them if you give them a chance. So a
large part of what we have to do when we’re training other doctors and what I try to be
careful about is listening to the patient, letting them explain things, letting me see
what’s going on through their eyes. The most important thing to know about cancer
today is that they speed at which we’re making progress is astounding. So cancers
that we’ve had no treatment for two or three years ago, we sometimes have excellent treatment
for now, and so we can make great, great impact on the cancer. At Swedish Cancer Institute
in Edmonds, we have an extensive team of physicians, nurses, laboratory technicians, receptionists.
Most of our staff have been with us for 20 years, and they’re all very dedicated to
patients. They feel the same way about patients that the doctors do. And it makes, I think,
our care very personal and, at the same time, technologically very experienced in experts.
At the end of the day, some days are very tough. But if it wasn’t fulfilling, I wouldn’t
be getting up the next morning at 7 a.m. and coming into work. And I’m very grateful
that I got into a profession that allowed me to help people get better in life and have
a less tough journey in life than they otherwise would have.