I just got back from a trip to Durham, North Carolina.  It was a dual purpose visit.  On one hand, I was visiting my alma mater, Duke, which I hadn’t seen in many years.  I was able to revisit some old memories, and the timing couldn’t have been better for dropping by Cameron Indoor Stadium.  There was a basketball camp in progress hosted by Coach K, and I was able to see numerous alumni there, including Christian Laettner and current Magic players Chris Duhon and J.J. Redick.  The main purpose of the trip, though, was to accompany my mother to see her doctor for lymphoma treatment.  She has a local doctor, but the disease has reached a point where the current therapy is ineffective. 

                I used to work at Duke’s Comprehensive Cancer Center while a student, but it is now a huge new complex.  The labs are drawn on the first floor, and the clinics are on separate floors differentiated by specialty with a total of six floors.  I realize that I come with a personal bias, but I left with a reinforced impression of why Duke Hospital is synonymous with high quality.

                The building is spotless and designed with patient ease in mind.  There is excellent lighting with open windows showing the natural beauty of gothic buildings that surround the site.  Directions are clearly presented to main areas, and there are colored zones to differentiate separate clinical areas of the cancer center (ex. purple zone, orange zone).  Upon check-in, patients are given a buzzer similar to restaurants (Olive Garden or Outback Steakhouse), even though the waiting areas are so large and open with multiple televisions, magazines, and refreshments that it is unlikely that one would leave the waiting area.  There are even five large screen computers with internet access in the waiting areas to manage the wait times.

                The more intense the medical problem, the more important quality is to a patient.  Ultimately, we were there for the care of the specialist.  After looking at my mother’s labs, the doctor needed to perform a bone marrow biopsy.  The doctor and his nurse stayed until 7 p.m. to complete the job, and they couldn’t be nicer.  Follow-up care is coordinated with the doctor here in Orlando (who trained with the Duke doctor), and test results are available to my mother on the internet. 

                Although some things at Duke were the same, much had changed.  I certainly felt older as I saw my old dorm and the buildings that were now standing in the places of ones that were torn down.  In the case of the medical center, it is clear that the progress is for the better.

P.S.  As we left town, we stopped by Cameron Indoor Stadium, and here's a picture of my dad with Chris Duhon.