Dr. Paul Weiden, an oncologist who has been treating cancer patients in Southeast Alaska for 23 years, is retiring at the age of 83. He has dedicated his career to providing cancer care to patients in remote communities, traveling to Juneau monthly to see patients and offering remote care through telemedicine.
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In the 20 years prior to that, I was at Virginia Mason, and we saw a lot of patients who came from Southeast Alaska – particularly Juneau – to Seattle, particularly to Virginia Mason for care for cancer. So the folks that bothered me most were the patients at the end of life who had been treated up here and would come down to see if there was anything more that could be done.
If I have a patient in Sitka or Wrangell or Skagway, or whatever, we do telemedicine, unless they need to come to Juneau for the radiology facilities that are here. So now I have a pretty good understanding of where everything is, and can work with the patient and the family and whatever local medical facility is in that town to see what’s reasonable to do. You know, you also understand that a patient from Skagway can get to Juneau pretty reliably in the summer, but come winter, and, you know, it’s a little dicey.
Oncology Retirement Telemedicine Southeast Alaska Healthcare
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