After thirteen years with the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, the last four of which were as the deputy director of the Division of Cancer Treatment, Dwight Kaufman, PhD, MD, moved closer to home to enter private practice. After nearly 20 years as an oncologist with the Jackson Clinic, he is putting some of his administrative knowledge into play as medical director for the Alice and Carl Kirkland Cancer Center.
Kaufman, a native of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, went to Ouachita Baptist University in Southwest Arkansas on a football scholarship. He majored in chemistry and had no intention of pursuing medicine initially. While completing his PhD in organic chemistry at Louisiana State University, Kaufman realized a degree in medicine offered him more options that would include research.
“At that time the job market for someone wanting to go into academic research was not very promising, and usually required three to four years of additional post doc experience” said Kaufman. “As I was finishing up my dissertation research I decided to pursue medical school and entered immediately after I graduated my PhD program.”
Returning to Arkansas, Kaufman received his medical degree from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in 1979. He chose to pursue oncology as his specialty primarily because of the exciting research options. The first year of his internal medicine residency was completed at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. He final two years were completed at the University of Arkansas Medical Center.
“I spent my general oncology fellowship at the National Cancer Institute where I focused on clinical and bench research,” said Kaufman. “This was an exciting time to be at the NCI, where many of the most effective therapies still in use were developed. All the patients I treated were research protocol patients, mainly lymphoma, breast, ovarian and testicular cancer. I was particularly interested in lymphoma, breast and ovarian cancers. After my fellowship I remained at the NCI for ten more years teaching fellows and continuing clinical research, primarily with lymphoma patients, and continuing bench research in molecular biology of breast cancer initiated during my fellowship and starting a new program in the Radiation Biology Branch.”
His last four years were mainly administrative in nature due to his position as deputy director of the Division of Cancer Treatment. “While I continued to see patients as an attending physician in the fellowship program, I realized that what I enjoyed most was contact with patients and I decided to make a change so that could be my primary focus,” said Kaufman. “Another factor in my decision was that my parents were elderly and it was also a good time for me to move closer to them.”
Kaufman looked into opportunities in Arkansas but found the best fit for him was in Jackson, Tennessee with the Jackson Clinic. “I liked what I found here and meshed well with Dr. Eugene Reese so I decided to come,” said Kaufman. “And I have been here nearly 20 years.”
Shortly after the Alice and Carl Kirkland Center opened for patients in January 2014, the Jackson Clinic relocated its oncology and chemotherapy services to the center, a move Kaufman sees as positive for many reasons. “Our patients have access to a state of the art treatment facility as good as any other center anywhere. Patients appreciate that. It also offers them many amenities and is aesthetically pleasing,” he said. “We had a cutting edge oncology practice when we were located in the Jackson Clinic so we just moved that a couple of blocks up the street. One big advantage to being in the Kirkland Center is the vast amount of space it offers us. We have more treatment chairs, beds and nurses to treat our patients.
One unique aspect of the Kirkland Center is that three oncology practices share clinical and treatment space. “Since the end of April, the Jackson Clinic’s four oncology physicians, Dr. Clyde Smith, who is employed by the hospital, and Drs Archie Wright and Brian Walker of West Tennessee Oncology Consultants have worked together at the clinic and share weekend call,” said Kaufman. “I like to say that the center is clinic blind. We have always been friendly competitors and had a healthy respect for one another but there was no cross coverage or other specific interaction between practices. Now, although our referral sources are different, our practice styles are similar enough that we cross cover on the weekends and regularly bounce things off one another.”
This cohesive approach is facilitated further with weekly general cancer and breast cancer conferences. “Every Wednesday morning, the medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgeons, pathologists and radiologists and other specialists meet for a general oncology conference. On Thursdays a similar conference is held that is dedicated to breast cancer,” said Kaufman. “Cases are freely discussed and criticized when there is disagreement. We work together to come to a consensus on the optimum treatment plan for each case. This is just one way we interact and cross consult across clinics. All of our offices are located on the third floor of the center, facilitating frequent informal discussion of patients.”
In his role as medical director for the Kirkland Cancer Center, Kaufman is responsible for assisting in the administration of the building and initiating and overseeing quality and safety initiatives. “I have no qualms about the quality of the practices. If I did I wouldn’t have agreed to do the job when they asked me last winter,” said Kaufman. “The center also participates in clinical trials that are nationwide and I serve as the principal investigator on the clinical trials we have open.”
Print
