As some readers may know, I recently left my long time institution at the University of Washington / Fred Hutch Cancer Center, where I’d been a faculty member for about 10 years, in clinical research and multiple myeloma.
Moving is hard. Leaving a place you’ve been, and felt comfortable at, for the past 10 years is even harder! Vancouver is nice, but different – it’s not yet home, though I can see how it could become that.
What will my life be like, coming from a prestigious US academic medical / cancer center, to a well regarded Canadian provincial cancer center in a single payer system? I don’t yet know, though I can imagine what things will look like. However, let me walk you through how this all happened.
I applied for, and interviewed for this job in late 2024. I accepted the job offer, after much reflection and discussion with my wife, in early 2025. At the time, the primary motivation for my departure was multiple factors, which I won’t go into – but it was clear that it was time for me to leave Fred Hutch.
One thing that is very clear – the patient volumes we see at BC Cancer will be much higher than the average oncologist who practices at Fred Hutch. I am not shocked by this, but well prepared – I had one of the busiest practices at Fred Hutch before I left.
I will keep you all posted on how it goes!