Scott Webb: On today's podcast, we're getting acquainted with Dr. Martin Fleming, a surgical oncologist with Regional One Health Center Cancer Care, who specializes in treating breast cancer, skin cancer, and melanomas.

This is One-on-One with Regional One Health, your inside look at how we're building healthier tomorrows for our patients in our community. Join us as we get to know some of the individuals who help provide life-saving, life-changing care for our community. I'm Scott Webb.

Dr. Fleming, thanks so much for your time today. I love these Regional One podcasts where we get to learn about the docs and the nurses and the people who work there, and a little bit about what you do. So as we get rolling here, what inspired you to become a doctor and why did you decide to specialize in surgical oncology treating breast cancer, skin cancer and melanoma?

Dr. Martin Fleming: I don't know, because it's something I've always planned to do. I guess in fairness, there's probably some genetic predisposition. My father was a cancer surgeon. And I come from a large family of physicians and I really never thought of doing anything else. Even in high school and college, that was the plan, to do this. So, it's been a great pleasure to kind of have that journey to get here. And it's always an honor to help people in their sometimes most difficult times. So, one of those things that just was who I was, it had to be and I'm honored to get to do it.

Scott Webb: Yeah, that does seem to be a bit of a common thread with healthcare providers, is that it's just sort in their blood, in their family. When we think about you and treating patients, what's most rewarding when you think about providing care at Regional One Health Cancer Care?

Dr. Martin Fleming: Several things. One, it's always a great pleasure and honor to be able to take care of somebody's cancer problems and restore them to health, provide them a long life whenever possible in a cancer situation. But the flip side is also just as rewarding when someone has a situation that we don't know how to fix and we don't know how to cure, but there's all kinds of things we can do to help. And sometimes it's helping them make accommodations to their new existence, whatever that is, in the face of their cancer. Sometimes it's helping them transition into palliative care and hospice care and have some beautiful time with their family as their cancer situation plays out.

Reason one specifically I have found particularly rewarding because so many of the people that we care for in the inner city of Memphis don't expect people to care, much less expect to get tertiary cancer care at the highest level. So, it's been really exciting to be a part of a program that's determined to provide the highest level of cancer care to every citizen in Memphis in the mid-south blindly in a wonderful way. That's been a great reward.

One of the things that has been part of the joy of working at Regional One and developing this cancer center there, the cancer program there, is Regional One is very committed to meeting the needs of patients in ways that are incredibly tangible that I've not seen in other hospitals. We have social workers embedded in our clinic to help people kind of navigate their lives through these difficult times. They use Lyft and have a Lyft account, where transportation is not a small deal for a lot of our patients. And we're very regional. We're a couple hundred miles from many other major city. And so, we have people coming from very long distances that can't afford the gas money to get to the cancer doctor. And it's not a problem, we got you. And they go pick them up an hour away and bring them in. And that has been an important part of the program and kind of a joy to see how we can take care of people in spite of those impediments.

Scott Webb: Yeah, I'm sure it has, and I'm sure it's also been rewarding for you and maybe challenging in some ways, and I know that you've established a new oncology service at Regional One Health. So, tell us about that. What are some of the challenges? What are the rewarding parts of it? You know, when you think about cancer and a diagnosis for folks, you know, they need you before, during, and after. What's it been like establishing that service?

Dr. Martin Fleming: Actually, a lot of hard work but very rewarding. And you're absolutely right, before, during, and after. And sometimes, we focus on the during most, taking care of the cancer problem when it's there. We collectively, physicians in the world, in the United States, are doing a better job, I think, with the before with screening and trying to educate people on prevention and things to do to minimize their risk. But sometimes, we don't do a very good job in the after. We kind of high five that we've done a great job and we've cured their cancer, and then we walk on to the next room to see the next patient, not realizing what we've left the patient to have to deal with, whether it be a different way of walking and getting around, or whether it's an ostomy because, you know, they had colon cancer and they need ostomy care and that followup.

So, one of the things we're working very hard on at Regional One is a Commission on Cancer Accreditation to the American College of Surgeons, which would demonstrates that we provide both very high level quality care, but also those other support pieces with social work and oncology rehab and palliative care and a survivorship plan. It took cancer physicians a long time to realize that when you do really good work and people survive their cancer, that's not the end of the journey. And so in the last, oh, probably 20 years on the national level, the American College of Surgeons and the American Cancer Society have been encouraging development of survivorship plan programs within the hospitals in the United States and we are on definitely on that journey as well to make sure those patients are taken care of long after their cancer has stopped being a problem.

Scott Webb: You know, I've been hearing that word survivorship a lot as it relates to cancer specifically. You know, and I'm sure a cancer diagnosis can be hard to navigate for patients and their families, both physically and emotionally. Maybe you can tell folks how you help patients with that, especially maybe the emotional part.

Dr. Martin Fleming: Sure. It is very complicated, especially when so much of cancer care now is multidisciplinary. So, it's not just one department. It's not just surgery, it's not just radiation, it's not just chemotherapy. It's a collaborative effort that we've worked very hard to develop with my colleagues at Regional One, so that patients will see multiple different physicians, which sometimes means multiple different appointments and different parts of the hospital. And just logistically, that could be very complicated for people. We talk in our world very freely and using abbreviations and strange words that we might as well be speaking French to some of our patients. And it's really important that they understand the communication, that we don't just walk out of the room having dropped a bunch of scientific information on them. So, we work very hard making sure that there's an understanding of what the plan is and that they're a partner in all the decision-making.

Emotionally, absolutely, one of the things that's actually very rewarding is to develop an environment where patients are heard and their families are supported. Our nurses and even starting at our front desk, they know people's names and they care about them. You can just tell. So when patients come in, they know that it's not just a doctor's visit where they're going to get some pills or have surgery done, and then they're on their own again. We're buying into their care for years. Most of the time for cancers, minimum of five years, and I see patients, gosh, that I operated on 25 years ago, that we stay in touch with. They come once a year because they want that connection and they want us to look them over and weigh in on their care. So, it's a long-term relationship that, again, is a great honor to be part of.

Scott Webb: I'll give you an easy one here as we wrap up here, doctor. Tell us about your life outside of work. What are some things you enjoy doing when you're not curing cancer, saving people's lives and counseling them emotionally and all of that? What do you do for yourself?

Dr. Martin Fleming: I do a lot of teaching and resident training and working with medical students. And every so often, someone will say, "Well, how old do you have to be when you retire? What do you think about that?" And I'm like, "I don't understand it, because it's not work if it's fun?" And so if you're enjoying what you do, there's no required endpoint until you're just somehow infirmed and can't do it. So, I do a lot of that because that's what I enjoy doing. But I really enjoy time with my family and we do some traveling. I have now three grandsons and they're not all in Memphis. So, we traveled back and forth and time with our friends. But my family would tell you what I do a lot of is piss.

Scott Webb: Well, you know, doctor, you sound so youthful. I sort of raised an eyebrow when you said you have grandsons. Because I'm 54 and I thought you sound about maybe 35 or so. So, I'm like, "How does he have grandsons?"

Dr. Martin Fleming: I'm not 35.

Scott Webb: Well, it's really amazing and a bit of a common thread, but good to hear your story that, you know, a lot of doctors and nurses, it just runs in their family and it's just sort of understood. And from an early age, they think, "Of course, I'm going to be a doctor." And then, even asking you, "So what do you enjoy in life?" And apparently, you enjoy doing what you do, obviously family, friends too, traveling. But you really enjoy helping people, counseling them, treating them, saving their lives, staying with them after this cancer journey, after this diagnosis, and thinking about survivorship and so on. So, this has been really great today, doctor. Thanks so much. You stay well.

Dr. Martin Fleming: All right. You too. Thank you so much and happy to talk anytime.

Scott Webb: Dr. Fleming sees patients at Regional One Health's East Campus and Main Campus. For appointments call 901-515-HOPE. That's 901-515-4673. And thanks for making One-on-One with Regional One Health, part of your journey to better health. Join us next time as we introduce you to another member of the Regional One Health Family. I'm Scott Webb. Stay well.