My name is Dr. Patricia DeFusco; I have been in clinical practice caring for women with breast cancer for over 30 years. I have always believed that medicine is a profession not a job. The relationship between a physician and a patient is a partnership characterized by trust, compassion, empathy and education. These elements are essential as women (and men) with breast cancer face their diagnosis with the whole range of emotions ranging from terror to acceptance and that initial response needs to be understood, accepted and validated to move on to the specifics of treatments and interventions.
It is the art of medicine for the physician to meet a patient and to try to understand what that particular patient’s experience of her (or his) cancer diagnosis is. Each patient brings their individual personality, their family history, their current social context, their concerns about their partner, their children, about work, school, the future to each visit.
I have been involved in seeing patients with the spectrum of breast issues for many years. Getting to know each patient as an individual is important to me. I always try to integrate details of their life into our visits, trying to truly think about their individual concerns, to find solutions based driven by data, but also on what strategy might work best for that individual at that time.
I have had the privilege of working with hundreds of women (and some men) on their breast cancer journeys. They have taught me about life’s priorities, about joy and fear, about sadness and acceptance, about spirituality and resilience and so very much more.
I am now embarking on my new role as Director of the Breast Program for Hartford HealthCare. My goals are to create a common standard across the hospitals in the Hartford Healthcare system so that no matter where a patient enters the system, she (or he) will be offered the same standard of care. I hope to specifically work on establishing a strong survivor-ship program, implementing our Risk Assessment and Surveillance program and fostering the implementation of new technology. Guiding these efforts will be the additional goal of establishing metrics and evaluating outcomes. I hope to strengthen and grow our existing teams, especially in breast surgery and medical oncology. I hope to integrate the experiences which my patients have so graciously shared with me as we grow current programs and create new programs that can improve the journey for all the patients served by Hartford HealthCare. I truly believe that we can simultaneously provide cutting edge treatment and clinical trials with comfort, consistency, compassion and hope.