Put Your Feet in the Water with Dr. Robert Mayer

Robert Mayer, MD, is the Faculty Vice President for Academic Affairs at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and the Stephen B. Kay Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, where he serves as the Faculty Associate Dean for Admissions. He directed the Dana Farber’s Medical Oncology Fellowship Program for over thirty years, overseeing the training of several hundred oncologists and established the Center for Gastrointestinal Oncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Dr. Mayer is a past president of American Society of Clinical Oncology and has been a recipient of numerous awards including ASCO’s Distinguished Achievement Award and the prestigious Giants of Cancer Care award. “Medicine is complicated now, [but] it's still the basic principle of people caring for people, trying to do good and making their lives better. I always tell people, ‘Put your feet in the water and see what there might be.’ Try different things; don't think you know the answer before you really have a chance to see what all the opportunities are. When people give you a chance, take an interest in you, advise you, or guide you, say yes, listen, and go for it. Those are opportunities that are very special.” Having been provided rare opportunities by his mentors, Dr. Robert Mayer now does the same for his mentees. Tune into this episode of The Medicine Mentors to learn more. Pearls of Wisdom:   1. Availability is the key value of implementing a patient-first attitude because we have less time to get to know the patient and yet still have a responsibility to build the same level of comfort for their care. 2. Instead of looking for success in accolades and accomplishments, true success for physicians is knowing your patients and treating them over time. Caring for someone and keeping them priority means being a successful physician. 3. If somebody takes a chance on us, the least we can do is put our foot in the water and say yes, because those are opportunities that are very special.