Bruce Furie, MD: sailor and furniture builder

First interested in pursuing painting or architecture, Dr. Furie ultimately chose medicine.

Bruce Furie, MD, is the co-chief of the Hemostasis and Thrombosis Division at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also the HemOnc Today Section Editor of Hemostasis & Coagulation.

Furie is the recipient of the William Dameshek Prize of the American Society of Hematology and a MERIT Award from the NIH, and he holds an honorary degree from the University of Lund in Sweden. Furie’s major contributions have been in the field of blood coagulation, platelet biology and thrombosis.

What do you enjoy doing when you’re not practicing medicine?

Bruce Furie

My major avocation is sailing. In my youth, my first career was developing a sailing school and sailboat rental agency on Long Beach Island, N.J. It was named Furie Sailing, and I started it when I was in high school.

The business put me and my brothers through college and graduate school. Today, my wife Barbara and I have a cruising sailboat, Karass, that is docked at our house in Woods Hole, Mass. In the wintertime when I am not fiddling with the boat, I build furniture at my workshop in Woods Hole.

If you hadn’t gone into hematology, what would you have done?

I went to college at Princeton University, and I think it was when I was a sophomore that I became very interested in drawing and painting and seriously thought about transferring to art school. I soon realized that I would need to earn a living, so I thought about going into architecture. I still have strong interests in design and architecture, but I went into medicine and I don’t regret it.

What would you consider one of your biggest successes in your specialty?

This is a hard question, but I think I can name a couple of things. Looking back I think of all the people who I have trained and mentored — the next generation of people coming into hematology, clinical medicine and basic laboratory science. I have had more than 100 postdoctoral fellows that have worked with me, so I take a lot of pride in them and their successes because they are my “scientific children.”

In addition, I believe that our group has contributed new knowledge via our scientific efforts that have moved hematology forward. For example, we discovered the protein P-selectin, determined the three dimensional structure of Factor VIII, made some interesting observations about vitamin K and gamma-carboxyglutamic acid function, and we published one of the earliest papers on computer-based rational drug design.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

When I first started as a junior faculty member, I received an Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association. And I was assigned a mentor from the AHA.

My mentor told me, “All institutions are malignant. You have to build walls of money around yourself to insulate yourself from them.” This was the best advice I have ever received. Even though I hadn’t appreciated it at the time, it will ring true for many readers of HemOnc Today.

Who do you consider a mentor?

I have several mentors. William J. Williams, MD, then at the University of Pennsylvania, introduced me to blood coagulation research while I was in medical school.

At the NIH, I worked with Christian B. Anfinsen, a Nobel Laureate, and with Alan N. Schechter. Both were very important components of my mentorship during this critical period. At Tufts University School of Medicine, Robert Schwartz, MD, the then chief of hematology, nurtured my career in a very positive way.

What or who do you think will have the biggest influence on hematology/oncology in the next 10 years?

I’d like to see the training programs in hematology/oncology separate. Oncology has so overwhelmed hematology that we are not training hematologists anymore. We need well-trained oncologists, but we also need well-trained hematologists. Fellows in most hematology/oncology training programs are not well-trained in nonmalignant hematology.

What is the last book you read?

The last book I read is “The China Price: The True Cost of Chinese Competitive Advantage” by Alexandra Harney. It was written by a young woman who I have known since she was born. She is the daughter of one of my closest friends. She now lives in Hong Kong and the book describes what the “China price” is, how products are made inexpensively and at what cost, and how these economics have caused problems in the United States as well as in China.

It’s the American retailers working to get the lowest price they possibly can, a large Chinese population base that is willing to work for much less than American workers, and the factories in China willing to break the rules so they can keep the China price.

Have you seen any interesting art collections lately?

I was in London recently and went to the Tate Modern. But my favorite paintings by Mark Rothko were not on display. They had one Rothko that was back to back with one of Monet’s “Water Lilies” and the colors were wonderfully resonant.

What’s the last CD you bought?

I don’t buy CDs very often, but I did buy “La Pasion Segun San Marcos” by Osvaldo Golijov after hearing its premier performance at Symphony Hall in Boston. I love classical music and regularly attend the Boston Symphony.

I recently began to collect movies. One of my sons is a computer engineer in Hollywood and he introduced me to TiVo. So I have now TiVo’d 450 movies. I recently watched “I’m All Right Jack” and “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” The 1953 version is so much better than the new glitzy version.

What kind of diet and exercise regimen do you have?

I use my elliptical trainer while I watch my Tivo’d movies. Although I am not a sports spectator or enthusiast, golf is one sport that I try to enjoy, though I remain pretty mediocre and am getting worse.

What is your favorite travel destination?

I travel all over the world. But if you ask me what is my favorite travel destination, I would answer Woods Hole. This is where my house, boat and workshop are located, and I get there almost every weekend when I am not traveling. But Barbara and I do travel quite a bit. Last year we were in Argentina, Chile, China, England, Japan, Spain, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Greece and the Netherlands.

What is your favorite restaurant?

My wife’s cooking is the best — it’s her hobby. Her work beats anything on Cape Cod. She is a serious cook, and in the house that we built in Woods Hole she designed herself a beautiful kitchen. She loves to cook with other people. – by Jennifer Southall