In honor of Thomas Shea, MD
Dr. Thomas Shea is known to fly in a tiny airplane to small airports in remote parts of North Carolina with the goal of helping patients in communities far away from UNC Hospitals in Chapel Hill. That’s part of his job as associate director for clinical outreach at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. He also is the director of UNC’s bone marrow transplant unit. And he heads UNC’s fellowship program for young doctors training in hematology or oncology.
He’s a busy man, but he’s always kept his focus on the patients. In fact, he became a doctor because he thought it was the one profession that knew no borders.
“I liked the idea of helping and healing people, and being able to develop skills that I could take anywhere,” he says.
After medical school, Dr. Shea went to Nicaragua, where part of his job was to help airlift patients from remote villages to hospitals for surgery.
When he came back to the States, Dr. Shea decided to focus on cancer patients. “I wanted to do this because these patients need a lot of hands-on care and also because simply spending time with them and their families is so important. The art of medicine is just as big a part of oncology as the science of medicine.”