My day as a breast surgeon starts with a breast conference to discuss individual patient’s treatment and diagnostic planning with involved colleagues. Then I will see patients in the breast health center clinic to discuss these plans. Treatment and diagnostic workups have become more complicated today due to advanced technology, image directed needle biopsies and the numerous surgical/medical options available to patients. Depending on the day, in addition to my “clinic” days, I will perform 2-3 surgeries for benign and malignant disease.

My goal as the medical director of the Alegent Breast Health Center is to provide a more patient focused model of breast care incorporating a team of experts dedicated to the disease in order to provide a more efficient, state of the art and less fragmented quality of care. We hope that with this model, we can diminish the delay and anxiety associated with unnecessary wait times associated with benign or malignant results and definitive treatment plans.

This is my first “breast health blog entry.” Why am I blogging?  Isn’t everyone? I am the new Medical Director of the Alegent System Breast Health Centers. I have been in general surgical practice for almost 20 years. I came to Omaha in the fall of 2008 from Kansas City where I had greater than a 10 year experience  with breast disease and an established breast center model.  I am here now to help develop a new breast health center model for Omaha and the Alegent Health System.

I resisted emails and texting for the longest time, but if this is how we have to communicate, then hopefully it is for the best. Seriously, I want to reach out and communicate with patients and the public about issues that I see day to day about breast health. If I can help someone through their anxiety, emotions and fear or can stimulate one person to get that mammogram or perform that self exam to find a tumor early, then any education, blog or communication, is worthwhile.

I have always been a very tactile person with a specific attention to detail.  I started using my hand/eye coordination (long before video games, cell phones and the internet) through sports and playing the piano. Surgery was a perfect fit. It wasn’t until I began my medical school and surgery rotations that it became obvious to me that this was something I enjoyed. Surgery allowed me to help diseased and sick patients to obtain an immediate result to a problem.

Breast cancer patients are unique because of the aesthetics, privacy, emotions and fear of this particular cancer. Even though we have made significant improvement in detection and survival, breast cancer affects so many women, both young and old. I realized early in my surgical career that it took a specific passion and personality to want to dedicate your practice to breast surgery.