Health care expert faces his wife’s cancer

By Chelsea Conaboy, Globe Staff

In a post titled “We have cancer,” Dr. John Halamka announced on his blog yesterday that his wife has just been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Halamka is a guru in hospital information technology. He has long served as the chief information officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School, and he has been called the hardest working man in the field. He is also a practicing emergency room physician.

For the next several months, he said, he will be sharing his perspective from the patient side of health care. He writes:

Cancer. It’s a word that creates fear and uncertainty. Many of the doctors I know use the word “hate” whenever they discuss their feelings about cancer.

Last Thursday, my wife Kathy was diagnosed with poorly differentiated breast cancer. She is not facing this alone. We’re approaching this as a team, as if together we have cancer. She has been my best friend for 30 years. I will do whatever it takes to ensure we have another 30 years together.

She’s has agreed that I can chronicle the process, the diagnostic tests, the therapeutic decisions, the life events, and the emotions we experience with the hope it will help other patients and families on their cancer treatment journey.

Halamka said he plans to share updates on their progress each Thursday.