Doctor’s experience at home and abroad colors cancer care
BARDSTOWN For Patrick Williams, MD, the call to care for cancer patients started at home, but the experience he gained from his work around the country cultivated his mission. Williams, hematologist/oncologist at the CHI Saint Joseph Health – Cancer Care Center in Bardstown, has seen cancer firsthand as he watched cancer take the lives of his grandfather and his aunt when he was a child, and later his mother and grandmother. His experience with caring for cancer patients and their caregivers helped enhance his oncology practice.
“I’m really thankful that I got to see what compassionate care looked like,” Williams says. “It’s been around me my whole life. My brother became a physician, a pediatric anesthesiologist. I’m married to a cancer nurse, and had the opportunity to actually practice with her and watch her as an incredibly compassionate nurse towards patients. I’m just really fortunate that my life has been kind of peppered with people who’ve been affected by cancer and people who treated cancer patients. That has blended itself into the way that I practice oncology care.”
A Career across the World
Williams went to college at the University of Arizona, graduating with a degree in immunosuppression and a minor in chemistry. After medical school at the Uniformed Services University at the Navy National Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, he did his residency in internal medicine at the Eisenhower Army Medical Center. He then moved to San Antonio, Texas, for a composite combined fellowship at Wilford Hall Medical Center. After completing the fellowship, he took a position as assistant chief of oncology in Fort Lewis Tertiary Medical Center, and chief of oncology at Womak Army Medical Center before completing a tour of duty between 2003 and 2007 when he was deployed in Iraq. Since that time, he has held positions at the Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville, and a cancer care center in Billings, Montana, where he developed the program.
Williams states that his experiences with diverse backgrounds in various parts of the country have influenced his quality of care. Growing up, Williams’ dad worked as a steam pipe fitter on a travel card moving his family from job to job throughout the U.S. This led Williams to practice medicine all around the country, as well as while he was stationed overseas with the U.S. Army
“I have been very fortunate to have opportunities to take care of people, literally from all around the world,” he says. “We used to talk about the disease that only occurs in the boards—when you take your oncology boards, and they say, ‘Well, you only see this disease on a board question.’ And I can honestly say there are many instances where the patient for me was one of those board questions. I have been fortunate enough to have gained that experience and to be able to bring that experience to each of the different places that I’ve practiced.”
Learning about diverse cultures and populations has given Williams an increase of knowledge, which allows him to more effectively communicate with and educate his patients, he says.
“I understand that not every community receives information the same way, whether it’s good or bad news. Being acutely aware of some of those differences allows me to present patients with information that best helps them understand their situation,” he says. “Sometimes, you have poor communication with the patient. When that does occur, because somebody may come from Uzbekistan, or you have somebody who is from a deeply spiritually Muslim country, understanding those issues as they relate to their current perception of the world helps you communicate much better and understand their goals much better.”
Bringing Big City Care to a Small City
Despite his experiences in other places, Williams and his wife, Stacy Williams, an oncology floor nurse on the leukemia, lymphoma, and cell therapeutics floor of the Norton Women and Children’s Hospital, have chosen the small town of Bardstown as their home for their blended family. Being minutes away from his practice allows him the time he needs to care for his own family, he says.
“Previously my professional life was waking up early in the morning, transitioning from Bardstown to Louisville, seeing anywhere from 25 to 35 patients a day, and really feeling that I didn’t have much energy left for my family or my personal life,” he says. “Now I travel eight minutes. I see fewer patients. I have more time to dedicate to them. It’s busy and it’s complicated. But my day-to-day is really taking care of a local population and providing them with big city care because we have the resources at Flaget we need to take care of them.”
Part of that “big city care” is bringing to his practice what he gained from his experience around the country and in Iraq. While his 26 years of experience gives him an edge when it comes to treating cancers, his contacts with providers in Kentucky who provide cancer-related services and the partnership with Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center helps to connect big city networks to his small town, he says.
“For instance, I had a patient who had a very unusual negative breast cancer that did not carry all of the usual hormone signatures you would see on a common breast cancer,” he says. “I was able to reach out to a world expert because of my previous contact in the military. Instead of wondering, ‘What do we do with this particular rare cancer?’ I can literally pick up the phone and have that patient seen within the week with that specialist. To me, that is what people hope for when they come to a doctor.”
That connection to patients is important to him. He says he’s honored to care for people he will see at local baseball games and in the grocery store.
“When I was in Louisville, patients who walked through the door could be from anywhere in the state,” he says. “Flaget is such a special place to be at, and I’m taking care of people within my community. There’s a more profound relationship in this community, and I feel like this was meant to be.”
The Future of Cancer Care
With an eye on the past, Williams says the future of oncology care is in unlocking the potential of the human immune system and gene manipulation. From the progress he’s seen, he thinks it’s possible. As a child, he watched his grandfather die from metastatic melanoma. What his grandfather went through is unheard of today, Williams says.
“Every time I look at an old man with male pattern baldness and a mustache who is playing happily with his grandchildren, I think about my grandfather,” he says. “Now I get to be part of something where they don’t just have three months, they’ve got the rest of their life; where cancer has become a chronic disease, and the immune system, genetic knowledge, and manipulation all are going to probably be the final end to cancer.”