In medical school, Dr. Jeffrey Forman said he expected to be like the 1970’s TV doctor Marcus Welby, an ‘old fashioned, home spun, nice version of current TV doctor House.?
‘There’s kind of like a mellow, grandfatherly version of House. He would each week have a diagnostic dilemma, spent the week figuring out what the issue was and in a genteel way solve the problem and be a hero. So to me, that was what being a doctor was all about,? said Forman.
But as he got to see different fields of care, many of his patients had cancer. What really got him interested was during his ‘Psyche rotation? at Belleview Hospital, where he got to interact with one of the patients, a young woman in her 20’s who was dying from lymphoma.
‘When I went to med school, I know I wanted to do something career wise that really made a difference to lots and lots of people, and in which my interactions with the people would be meaningful and important,? said Forman. ‘At that time I couldn’t think of anything more meaningful or important than helping a void in people like this one woman dying of cancer.?
He was recently appointed medical director of the Michigan Institute for Radiation Oncology and Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Institute Facilities. The 21st Century Oncology, Inc., Michigan network has eight MIRO MCCI affiliates in southeastern Michigan, including 6770 Dixie Highway in Independence Township.
Previous to coming to MIRO, Forman spent 16 years at Barbra Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. He was a medical director at Karmanos and director of the Lawrence and Idell Weisberg Cancer Center in Farmington Hills.
Forman said in the field of cancer ‘every interaction with patients is important to them and often a matter of life and death.? It is also a great field to do research, which he has been actively involved in for 25 years.
‘For me it turned out to be the perfect field. You get to help a lot of patients, you get to do research and move the science of medicine forward, and looking back on it I don’t have one bit of regret,? said Forman. ‘To me an interesting compliment is my oldest son is interested in doing what I do because he’s seen it for his whole life and shares that same passion.?
Forman said helping patients is the most rewarding part of his job. His main focus of research is on prostate cancer, and is known both nationally and internationally for. Forman has published at least 150 pages/ book chapters on prostate cancer.
‘As a result of the work I have directly either done or been involved with collaboratively, we’ve done things that have dramatically changed how we treat prostate cancer and as a result of that improved the outcome of treatments. Improving the likelihood of patients being restored reduced the likelihood of patients having bad side effects, so that’s tremendously rewarding. ? he said.
Forman’s third reward is he teaches med students, interns and residents. And from teaching he is able to impact young physicians in how they interact with patients throughout their careers.
‘It’s kind of like dropping a stone in a pond, like what I teach them is like that stone, but the ripples extend so far beyond. If I teach a hundred residents, during their careers they each take care of 10,000 patients, well then you’ve impacted on a million lives,? said Forman. ‘It’s a very far reaching benefit and I love teaching.?
He teaches at both Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Wayne State University where he has been ‘Teacher of the year.? Forman referred to himself as a ‘tough teacher,? which is a product of how he was taught. He teaches in a Socratic method, which involves ‘merciless questioning.?
One of the advantages to Forman of working with 21st Century Oncology is a very wide geographic scope.
‘By running eight centers it gives me a chance to really broaden the base and exposure to what we’re doing with modern treatment to a lot of other communities,? he said.
Another advantage is he knows he is working with some of the best technology money can buy.
‘Twenty-first Century’s philosophy is ‘we are going to do good well for the company by doing good for the patients.? And that we are always going to have the best technology,? he said. ‘To take care of patients with cancer, you want to be able to say with confidence ‘you cannot get better treatment anywhere,? the best equipment, best technology, (and) best individuals.?
Forman said 21st Century is coming up on the year anniversary since they purchased the MIRO group and already about 60 percent of the equipment has been completely replaced or upgraded to be ‘state of the art.? Within another 6-8 months it will be 100 percent.
‘That was the attraction to me, to really be able to not have to fight with how to improve ways of using old technology,? he said. ‘But to find ways with the newest technology to make that treatment available to patients throughout the community, so you don’t have to go to Memorial Sloan Kettering or MD Anderson to get access to that type of treatment and hopefully the medical know how that goes with it.?
Forman said one of things he found out through research is cancer patients want to be treated close to home, they don’t want to drive an hour or further to get treatment, which is sequential.
‘Most people who don’t really realize the qualitative differences between one place and another. They want the convenience of being treated close to their home and the expectation that they should have access to the same quality of treatment in their back yard,? said Forman. ‘And I think that is a very realistic, achievable expectation.?
Forman said he oversees treatments of all the patients at all eight centers, to make sure the treatments are reasonable, and appropriate.
‘We have great physicians at each one, Dr Kay Miller, who primarily works here (Clarkston,)? he said. ‘Instead of impacting on 30 patients I get to impact 150 and eventually more and more each day.?
. Forman graduated from Union College, a small school in Schenectady NY, then went to NYU for med school and did his internship and residency at John Hopkins University in Baltimore. He met his wife Miriam freshman year of college and has been married for 28 years. They have three children, Adam who is in Med School at Wayne State University, Tara, who is graduating from college in St. Louis with an interest in journalism, and Joshua, who is a high school senior at West Bloomfield High
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