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A Physicist Turned Physician

After a 20-year career in physics focused primarily on research, Chick Hechtman, MD, decided he needed a change.

“I found it to be an alienating field,” said Dr. Hechtman, a native of Long Island, N.Y. “And I really wanted to work more closely and hands-on with people.”

So, with the encouragement of his wife, Karen, Dr. Hechtman began medical school at the age of 42 at the University of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.

“It’s a very unusual coupling of careers, but my physics background actually melds beautifully with radiation oncology,” said Dr. Hechtman, who joined the staff at the Halifax Health — Center for Oncology in October 2007. “I’m able to use all the knowledge I gained along the way and the research I’ve done in the past to help treat cancer patients.”

Dr. Hechtman believes that the relationships he builds with patients possibly facing death is a meaningful and profound experience.

“I consider the ability to do this for a living an honor,” Dr. Hechtman said. “I’m not just here to treat the cancer — I’m here to treat the patients.”