At Health First, the mantra is “Wellness begins with WE.” Never is that more true than in cancer care, which requires a team approach to get the most effective treatment.

Health First Hematologist/Oncologist Long Dang, MD recently visited with a local reporter to talk about his approach to patient care.

“I’m a teacher,” he says, “and each of my patients is unique and different in their terms of understanding. The decisions about treatment that we make are almost always mutual.”

In fact, a report from the Institute of Medicine offers evidence that the very best outcomes happen only in a spirit of “clinicians and patients working together.”

“Dr. Dang really advocates for his patients,” one patient, Christa, told Vero News. “He’s aggressive with his care in a positive way. He called me every couple of days to see how I was doing. He gave me options and encouraged second opinions. Plus, he shared great resources with me. I really feel like it was a team effort.”

“Someone like Christa did so much research that I obtained valuable information from what she discovered. You must be your own advocate and she was.”

Dang says part of his job is to provide a road map for patients. “What is the goal of the treatment? What are side effects of treatment? Patients should understand as much as they can from the beginning. I never go against the patient’s final decision.”

READ the full story of Dr. Dang and Christa in Vero News HERE.