Paul Ness, MD, blood transfusion specialist discusses his love of Maine, literature and music

Ness finds time to unwind by the coast with his wife at their home away from home in Maine.

Paul Ness, MD, director of transfusion medicine and professor of pathology, medicine and oncology at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, is also an editorial board member for HemOnc Today, as well as editor for Transfusion, the leading blood transfusion publication. In his leisure time, Ness, who almost became an engineer, and his wife enjoy the Metropolitan Opera, art, and their book group, of which they’ve been members for nearly 30 years.

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

I enjoy spending time at our second home in Maine, where my wife Barbara and I work in the garden, take long walks, visit antique shops, and just enjoy the different climate. I also play golf and fish, and we go to the Metropolitan Opera in New York City about five weekends a year. We enjoy reading and participating in a couples’ book group that we’ve done for over 25 years, and I like spending time with my children, granddaughter and grand-dog Moxie who is a Maine native. Our book group was started many years ago in Baltimore. The founding members include Charlie Schiffer, another HemOnc Today Editorial Board member, and Marty Abeloff, former director of the oncology center at Hopkins.

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

Growing up, because my father was an engineer, I assumed I was going to be engineer. I went to college at MIT and was required, as part of attending MIT, to take two years of calculus and two years of physics, like all MIT graduates at that time. I quickly realized that I didn’t want to be engineer and wasn’t as good in calculus and physics as many people there and happily switched to becoming a biology major and then on to medicine.

Paul Ness

What is the best advice you’ve ever received?

I’m not sure I explicitly received this advice, but as I was going along in various parts of my training in medicine and hematology, I learned from various people and instances that it’s a good idea to try to get yourself in a position where you’re funded by hard money as opposed to being totally dependent upon soft money where your success is determined by grants and awards. Although I have been successful in obtaining grant support for much of my work, it was always a pleasant bonus rather than an ongoing expectation. I spent a couple of years, early on, at the NIH and saw some cases where bad decisions were made about various grants that led to people losing their funding, and I realized that I didn’t want to be totally dependent on the pursuit of outside funding.

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

I’ve been very active in training residents and fellows, many who have gone on to highly distinguished careers in transfusion medicine. I’ve been an author of several well-received text books in transfusion, which I think help with education, and currently, I am the editor of the leading journal in transfusion medicine, Transfusion, which is about to celebrate its 50th year of publication. I am also very proud of the international programs in transfusion in Asia and Africa that I have helped to establish or sustain.

Who do you consider a mentor?

My main mentor was a doctor I met as part of my hematology training in San Francisco. Blood transfusion education was an important part of the hematology/oncology training program for UC San Francisco. He is a distinguished hematologist who specialized in many aspects of blood transfusion. His name is Herbert Perkins, MD, and I’m happy to consider him my mentor. I spent three years working with him in the clinic at UCSF and in the research labs in the community blood center.

Herb Perkins is a very wise person who is well read; he helped me understand that blood transfusion deals with many different facets of medicine, not just hematology. Although you may end up being to some extent a dilettante, this lack of specific focus is actually a blessing because you’re interacting with physicians from many different specialties. He taught me that when you see something you don’t believe, you should look into its foundation because in many cases the dogma that we try to teach are not based on sound evidence. And, to this day, I still like to try to debunk myths which persist in our teaching and practices.

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

Our understanding of genetics and the basis of disease will lead to more targeted therapy that will become very important in hematology/oncology. The growing emphasis on evidence-based medicine will continue to improve our transfusion practices and limit the adverse consequences of transfusion therapy.

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

The last book I read was That Old Cape Magic by Richard Russo, selected for our couples’ book group in October.

The last art collection I saw was at an art gallery in Rockland, a town in midcoast Maine that has a developing cluster of art galleries and craft studios. The last museum art collection was at the Farnsworth Art Museum in Rockland. They had a show of Robert Indiana, and the Farnsworth also has a spectacular collection of paintings by Andrew Wyeth and other Wyeth family artists.

Ness is involved in an international teaching program that has allowed him to visit China 15 times during the last 10 years. Here, he is pictured with a panda during one of his trips.

I bought some choral music that a friend recommended and I put it our iPod. Our iPod has opera, classical, jazz, old rock. [My wife and I] like most kinds of music.

What kind of diet and exercise regimen do you have?

My diet isn’t all that interesting. I usually skip breakfast and maybe lunch and have a reasonable dinner, and I try to keep my weight down, although that’s a never-ending fight. Unfortunately, I had heart bypass surgery in March, but everything is fine. I have an exercise bike and use that three or four times a week. I have it set up in my basement in front of a black and white TV. I also play golf whenever I can.

What is your favorite travel destination?

My wife and I spend a lot of time up at our house in Maine. I’ve also been fortunate enough, through my work, where we have a couple of international teaching programs, to be very active in one of the programs in China. I’ve been to China about 15 times over the last 10 years. Also, about 15 or 20 years ago, I was fortunate enough to be invited to go to Vietnam after the war and spend some time there teaching Vietnamese technologists and physicians about blood transfusion.

What is your favorite restaurant?

My wife and I enjoy a lot of restaurants up in New York before going to the opera. There are some terrific restaurants in Maine too. One of the best experiences is a place about a mile from our house, where you go down to the wharf and sit at picnic tables and have steamed lobster and clams. We bring along some beer or wine and a salad; after clean-up, we walk up the road for ice cream. It’s an experience that’s hard to beat. – by Christen Haigh