Chapter 01: Medical Training and Education – Dual Certifications in Medical Oncology and Infectious Diseases

Chapter 01: Medical Training and Education – Dual Certifications in Medical Oncology and Infectious Diseases

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Description

Dr. Bodey begins his interview by discussing his career path and education. Initially trained as a medical oncologist, he later transitioned to infectious diseases, earning certifications in both specialties. He completed his medical education at Johns Hopkins. After medical school, he joined the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to fulfill military obligations. Dr. Bodey found his work at the NCI with Dr. Emil J. Freireich particularly influential, especially in the areas of infectious diseases and cancer treatment.

Following his time at the NCI, he relocated to Houston to work in the newly created Department of Developmental Therapeutics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. Despite initial concerns about the weather, he remained at the institution for over thirty-seven years.

Identifier

BodeyG_01_20030303_C01

Publication Date

3-3-2003

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The Interview Subject's Story - Educational Path; Personal Background; Professional Path; Influences from People and Life Experiences; The Clinician; Joining MD Anderson; Building/Transforming the Institution; Mentoring; On Mentoring; On Texas and Texans

Transcript

Lesley Williams Brunet, CA:

Before we get started, I wanted to ask, have you already been interviewed for the NCI [National Cancer Institute] oral history project? I know they’ve done a number of interviews. I couldn’t find one with you, but I wanted to double check. Gerald P. Bodey, Sr, MD The—what was that done through? MD Anderson?

Lesley Williams Brunet, CA:

No. It was done through NCI. I think it was done through a history group.

Gerald P. Bodey, Sr, MD :

Well, my situation has been that although I was trained as a medical oncologist, and I spent probably up through the mid-1980s doing medical oncology at this institution, I ended up running the infectious disease program in the Department of Medicine. Although I’m board certified in both specialties, neither one of them really concerns me as part of theirs. The oncologist thinks I’m an ID person. To an ID person, I’m an oncologist. People generally would look at my accomplishments as being predominantly related to infectious diseases, so I’m sure from NCI’s perspective, that’s not a cancer problem even though I think that it’s fair to say that our ability to manage infectious complications has a major impact on our ability to treat patients with cancer/chemotherapy. So—but no, I haven’t been interviewed by them.

Lesley Williams Brunet, CA:

And they may still be getting to you. I guess I’ve spent so much time looking at the records, especially from Developmental Therapeutics; I never ever questioned that, because I see so much chemotherapy work. Well, I know you went to Johns Hopkins, but I don't know where you’re originally from.

Gerald P. Bodey, Sr, MD :

0.02:00.8 Oh, I grew up in Pennsylvania—Eastern Pennsylvania—Allentown/Bethel area, and went to college at Lafayette College, which is in the eastern part of the state. From there, I went to Johns Hopkins. I completed my medical education, then took a year of internship and assisted residency there. At that time, there was a draft on physicians. So one of my friends had advised me that—he was several years ahead of me—it might be a good idea for me to apply for a position at the National Cancer Institute and then become a member of the public health service. That way I could fulfill my military obligation and still have a worthwhile medical experience in the process.

Lesley Williams Brunet, CA:

And what year did you graduate? Gerald P. Bodey, Sr, MD This was 19—well, I went to NCI in 1962, so I applied probably around 1960—yeah. It would’ve been 1960 that I made my application and was accepted. So, I said at the time, “Well, I don't know anything about cancer, and I really am more interested in infectious diseases,” and he said, “Well, that doesn’t matter. You’ll have very good training in all of medicine if you go there, because cancer patients get all kinds of problems.” So, I took his advice, and I interviewed with Dr. [Emil] Freireich and I was chosen then to go there, so I went there in 1962 for a two-year term, and I found it so interesting I ended up spending another year there.

Lesley Williams Brunet, CA:

So your work at Johns Hopkins—for some reason I thought that your internship and residency had been at Johns Hopkins in oncology.

Gerald P. Bodey, Sr, MD :

No. No. No.

Lesley Williams Brunet, CA:

I think it says that on something. Gerald P. Bodey, Sr, MD I was on the Osler Medical Service there. So, I took the extra year there, and then I applied for a residency program at several institutions out on the West Coast and ended up at the University of Washington. I sort of thought at the time I didn’t really know what I wanted to do long-term. I thought maybe I’d end up going into practice somewhere, and I thought it would be nice to live somewhere in the northwest, even though I’d never been there before. So, at any rate, around that time Dr. [R. Lee] Clark recruited Dr. Emil Frei to come down here and start a new program in cancer chemotherapy, and they created the Department of Developmental Therapeutics. I was working with Dr. Freireich so they encouraged me to come down here. So, that’s what I ended up doing. I remember very vividly two things about coming down here. The first was when I came for my interview. It was about two, three weeks before Christmas, and I’d spent all my lifetime in the north. So I came down here, and it was hot and warm and humid, very humid. And Dr. Freireich took me off somewhere for dinner one night. We drove out to Bellaire, and they had this little hut or house there, and they had it all decorated up for Christmas. They were playing, It’s Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas, and I’m walking around, and thinking, “This doesn’t look anything like Christmas to me whatsoever!” (laughs) I went back to Seattle and the snow and all that, and I told my wife I was terribly disappointed, but we were going to be going to Houston, Texas. I recognized that this was really a great opportunity. I had other options, but this was clearly the best. But I promised my wife I wouldn’t stay here more than five years.

Lesley Williams Brunet, CA:

And you’re still here.

Gerald P. Bodey, Sr, MD :

And I’m still here thirty-seven years later! The other thing I remember very vividly is I left Seattle, and we drove down here by way of the Canadian Rockies. We got into Texas out in Amarillo or somewhere around there, and I didn’t have any air conditioning in the automobile, and it was August third or something like that.

Lesley Williams Brunet, CA:

Everyone seems to come in August.

Gerald P. Bodey, Sr, MD :

I came driving across the state of Texas with my family, and we pulled in the parking lot here on Friday afternoon, three o’clock. I was quite ready to turn back around and go back to Seattle. So, the first thing we did the next morning, I had no job, I had no money, and I said to my wife, “Before we start looking for a house,”—we had a place to stay temporarily, but— “Before we look for a place to stay, we’ve got to get a car with air conditioning.” I had had some trouble with the car to start out with, but I said, “I’m just not even going to think about driving around this city without an air-conditioned car.” So, we went down to the car dealer, (???) (s/l Moe’s Hart) in Keller at that time, a Ford dealer, came out with a new car without my having a permanent address, a job, or any money, and just traded in my old car and got a new car.

Lesley Williams Brunet, CA:

As easy as that.

Gerald P. Bodey, Sr, MD :

You couldn’t do that today.

Lesley Williams Brunet, CA:

No. I don't think so.

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Chapter 01: Medical Training and Education – Dual Certifications in Medical Oncology and Infectious Diseases

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