Max J. Coppes: a study in contrasts

Coppes enjoys quiet meditation as much as he enjoys listening to Santana or Meat Loaf.

Max J. Coppes, MD, PhD, MBA, senior vice president at the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., has served as editor in chief of Pediatric Oncology as well as Pediatric Hematology eMedicine World Medical Library since 2000. A physician who nearly became a flight surgeon, he is equally comfortable in a Benedictine monastery and in the crush of humanity found in the cities of Southeast Asia. His CD collection includes world-renowned symphony orchestras, Gregorian chant and rock and roll.

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

I love traveling and experiencing new cultures and new people, seeing new things. I also enjoy retreating to a quiet place that allows you to meditate, pray and stay grounded as a person. For more than 30 years, I have enjoyed the hospitality and friendship of the monks at St. Benedictusberg, a Benedictine monastery in the south of the Netherlands. Living in North America has made it more difficult to visit, but I still make the effort.

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

I probably would have joined the Dutch Air Force as a physician/pilot. In the Netherlands where I grew up, there was compulsory military service at the time. For those who had been accepted in medicine and dentistry, you had the option to serve after finishing your studies and to join as a professional. I didn’t see the point in going to the military at the age of 18, so I went after I finished medical school. I chose the Air Force because I was fascinated with planes — I still am.

Max J. Coppes

They offered me the chance to stay on after my compulsory service was finished and I did spend a few weeks thinking about it, but I’ve never regretted the choice I made. If I hadn’t gone into pediatric oncology, I likely would have become a flight surgeon/helicopter pilot.

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

After three degrees, I morphed from a pure clinician to a physician/scientist to a physician/administrator. If I look at the many years I’ve practiced and the changes that I’ve made, including moving from the Netherlands to Canada, and later to the United States, I can honestly say without any reservations that my greatest success has been the fact that I have always loved doing what I do, including now that I’m an administrator. Some people roll their eyes and call administration the ‘dark side,’ but I don’t feel that way. I know why I went into this and I love building programs and enabling others to succeed.

When I was taking care of patients, I got more and more frustrated that we couldn’t answer their questions about why they got cancer. That’s what led me to do a PhD and study the genetic changes that cause Wilms tumor. As a physician/scientist, at some point the rate limiting factor became administration, my inability as a physician to communicate effectively with the CFO and CEO. Quite frankly, I had little idea of what they were talking about, and it seemed to me that they had no clue of why it was important to keep pushing the academic oncology envelope. They seemed to have a very different agenda, at least that is what it looked like to me.

My options were to keep banging my head against the wall or learn the culture and language of administrators and finance people and bridge that disconnect. That is what led me to pursue an MBA.

So looking back, for me, success has been my ability to be flexible enough to keep looking for ways I can contribute to the field of academic cancer.

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

The best advice I ever received was from Dr. Al Zipursky, a pediatric hematologist in Toronto and one of my mentors. He said, “When you tell people something, always make sure you tell them the truth. Never tell them half-truths, never tell them lies and never change the truth to your advantage.” He explained, “The reason for doing that is, as you get older, you will have to remember who you said what to. Life becomes much simpler if you’re always honest because then you don’t have to remember who you told what to.”

Who do you consider a mentor?

My first mentor was the late Tom Voûte, head of pediatric oncology in Amsterdam. He was the person who put me on the path of pediatric oncology and introduced me to the world of Wilms tumor. As part of my training, Tom sent me to Toronto, where I met Al Zipursky, who also became a mentor. Another physician that has served as a role model and mentor is Dr. Giulio D’Angio from Philadelphia, who some refer to as the grandfather of pediatric oncology in the United States. Unfortunately, they don’t ‘make’ people like these fabulous colleagues anymore. I have been truly privileged to have these giants in medicine lead my path.

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

It will be our inability to contain cost. Health care costs are getting more and more expensive. This is unsustainable; we can’t continue like this. At this stage, at least in North America, we live in a world where if it’s possible or when it adds three weeks to life, society expects us to do it. Not addressing the issue as to whether everything that is possible also should be made available, almost regardless of the circumstances, will cripple cancer care. My fear is that if physicians are unwilling to become actively involved in looking at what should be made available to who, when, and where, people from outside the field (administrators and politicians) will do it for us, and I doubt that their ability to tackle this problem is better than ours.

What is the last book you read/CD you bought? Why, and what did you think of it?

I read a lot of books, sometimes simultaneously. I recently read “Achieving Safe and Reliable Healthcare,” a book that deals with performance reliability rather than with errors. It was a fascinating book.

I also just finished “The Seven Storey Mountain,” a book that reflects on the life of the famous and prolific Trappist monk Thomas Merton and his quest for his faith in God. On the lighter side, I love the works of Wilbert Smith, a South African writer, and James Mitchell.

The last two CDs I got exemplify the extremes in me. I got “Santana’s Greatest Hits” and “Ténèbres,” a three disc CD in which the Benedictine monks of Abbey of Solesmes sing the solemn liturgies of Holy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. The thing is, I love both CDs. There is a time for classical music, operas, and Gregorian chants, and there is a time to crank up the volume for Samba Pa Ti, Tina Turner’s Proud Mary, or Meat Loaf’s Paradise by the Dashboard Light.

What kind of diet and exercise regimen do you have?

The University Club in Washington has an athletics department and I am there at least four times a week, usually at 6:30 a.m. I alternate between squash, swimming, elliptical trainer, biking, and weights. After that some toast and coffee with fellow members, and I am ready to take on the challenges of the day.

What is your favorite travel destination?

We don’t have a specific favorite travel destination. Many places that we enjoy visiting include Spain, Italy, Mexico, Asia and the Caribbean. I’ve been to several Caribbean islands and enjoy the fact that they all have so distinct cultures.

Most recently we went to Abaco in the Bahamas with some friends. The island extends roughly 165 miles, has one road that connects one side of the island with the other and is very quiet. We spent time walking a long beach and hardly met other people. I thoroughly enjoyed the relative solitude and tranquility.

In Thailand and Vietnam, on the other hand, there are millions of people, but I thought it was absolutely phenomenal to experience those cultures. South Vietnam was a real eye-opener: fabulous, hospitable people, who work so hard to make their country a better place. And their cuisine is spectacular, very different from the Thai one. I have been told that the excellent food is in part the result of several decades of French colonization.

What is your favorite restaurant?

No hesitation here: Chez Coppes. My wife is an outstanding cook who has been dealing with a critical customer for almost 27 years. She actually appreciates me being honest about her meals, because she knows that when I say that it was really good, I mean it. She loves to prepare Indonesian and Thai dishes. Other than trying to get reservations at Chez Coppes, I would recommend the following restaurants: Indrapura in Amsterdam, and Garuda in The Hague, both spectacular Indonesian restaurants, and Eve in Alexandria, Virginia and Citronelle in Georgetown, D.C., here in the Washington area.