Lombardi Director Sees Inspiration, Education in Clinic Work
.jpg "Lou Weiner at work")
"It feels good to be in a white coat again," Louis Weiner confides to his patient, a retired media executive, following Weiner's recent move to Georgetown University.
Part of Weiner's role as the director of Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center is to meet with patients in the clinic at Georgetown University Hospital, owned by MedStar Health, Georgetown University's clinical partner. You will find Weiner in the clinic once a week, seeing anywhere from a handful of patients to a dozen or so each time. For him, being in the exam room and treating patients is like "regaining a missing limb," as his experiences with patients while also conducting research continue to be extremely interconnected.
"Every time I have to tell a nice person some terrible news, I'm reminded of where we have inadequate options for patients and the urgency of developing better treatments. That urgency that I feel has made me a much better scientist, in that it makes me less patient with dead-end research directions. I don't have the patience to waste time on things that aren't working. My patients deserve better and I've become much more results-oriented in my research," he explains.
"Leaders such as Dr. Weiner-- who are not only outstanding researchers, clinicians and administrators, but who also spend their time sharing their expertise and knowledge with fellows and residents-- are among our greatest assets, and contribute greatly to our mission as an academic medical center," says Howard Federoff, MD, PhD, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences and Executive Dean.
After graduating from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 1977, he completed his residency at the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont and then a fellowship in hematology/oncology at the New England Medical Center Hospital in 1984. Weiner recognizes the value of working with fellows, and he brings to Lombardi’s clinics a philosophy on fellowship training that he describes as “old school,” in that he believes physicians learn best through working with patients. Fellows at Lombardi are typically recent graduates of medical residency programs who are looking for more training in a specific area. The 12 current fellows at Lombardi undergo intensive clinical training with numerous GUMC faculty members. He explains that training to be an oncologist should consist of more than just learning to be a good doctor.
“It’s our responsibility to make sure that we are training superb, compassionate doctors who are in tune with their patients’ needs. And those doctors should be equally as comfortable having hospice conversations as they are discussing the latest literature about molecular basis for cancer development,” he says.
One of Weiner’s clinical fellows, Trishna Goswami, has been bouncing in and out of exam rooms, preparing charts and gathering information to brief Weiner before he goes in to see the patients. Just before stepping in to see his last patient of the day, Weiner stops with Goswami to go over the patient’s medical history. Tossing questions to Goswami and quizzing Karra Lee, a physician assistant, on the patient’s symptoms and likely prognosis, Weiner dedicates his time between patients to his colleagues to foster collaboration and mentorship.
“Being a fellow at Lombardi has allowed me to get a good mixture of great clinical exposure working with wonderful patients and excellent clinicians, as well as being exposed to up-to-date research in the field,” says Goswami.
By Ellen Badger, excerpted from the GUMC Update
