From the December 2016 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
Willett received both his medical degree and Bachelor of Science degree from Tufts University in Boston. At Tufts, Willett happened to overlap with his father, who he names as the strongest influence on his decision to pursue this field. The senior Dr. (Bernard) Willett, while in his late 50s, left a successful practice in surgical oncology to pursue a career in radiation oncology, beginning with a residency in the same medical school where the junior Dr. Willett would soon matriculate. From his father, Willett says he learned “how valuable radiation therapy could be in helping patients.” When asked to reflect on his career, Willett is quick to name the family members, mentors, colleagues and students who helped drive and support him, expressing gratitude for their “positive influence” on his life and work. These include many individuals with whom he worked during his residency and clinical research fellowship at MGH in Boston, in addition to his year as a surgical intern at Vanderbilt University.
Dr. Anthony L. Zietman, FASTRO, has contributed to the science and practice of radiation oncology through decades of influential research on genitourinary (GU) cancers, active mentorship of future practitioners and faculty members and thoughtful leadership at the helm of scientific journals and meetings in oncology. As one of his letters of support extolled, Zietman’s contributions to the field of radiation oncology are “important, sustained and wide-ranging,” and he is seen as “a consummate clinician, an outstanding teacher and mentor, and an innovative clinical scientist.”
In 1986, Zietman joined Harvard Medical School as a research fellow and 30 years later, he is Harvard’s Jenot and William Shipley Professor of Radiation Oncology, and director of the school’s Radiation Oncology Residency Program. Zietman has also treated patients as a radiation oncologist at Massachusetts General Hospital since 1991. “Conscience-based care” is how Zietman describes the model of patient care he strives to practice and promote throughout the field. “We should practice with our conscience and from the evidence,” he said in a recent interview, stressing the importance for clinicians to couple “a devotion to evidence” with the requirement that they “treat patients with what they need, rather than what we need.”
