Team approach: Dr. Headrick aims to put a dent in lung cancer

A dog-lover with five beagle/hound mixes, Dr. Robert Headrick says it wasn't just the dogs that drew him to the Iditarod, but rather the team approach. That's something he strives for in his Chattanooga Heart Institute-affiliated medical practice, he said.
A dog-lover with five beagle/hound mixes, Dr. Robert Headrick says it wasn't just the dogs that drew him to the Iditarod, but rather the team approach. That's something he strives for in his Chattanooga Heart Institute-affiliated medical practice, he said.

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To learn more about lung cancer or to schedule a visit with Dr. Headrick, call 624-5200 or visit actvsurgeons.com.

photo Dr. Robert Headrick meets Monica Zappa, musher with Team Zappa, which is participating in this year's Iditarod starting March 4.
photo Dr. Robert Headrick makes rounds with TV star Betty White and one of his beagle/hound mixes. "I spend half my day telling people not good news," he said, adding that, having grown up in Harrison, it's often his former coaches and classmates he's treating. By beginning to reframe how the community looks at lung cancer, he hopes to reverse the kind of news he delivers.

While most in the Scenic City have their eyes set on an early spring, Dr. Rob Headrick is thinking of snow. As a sponsor of the Iditarod's Team Zappa, he will be following the famed race's progress through Alaska's frozen wilderness for the next week or so.

Headrick and his wife, Anita, are dog-lovers. Ask him about their beagle/hound mixed-breeds, and you'll get soft grins and a conversation's worth of stories. When it comes to real estate in his sparsely decorated office at Alliance of Cardiac and Vascular Surgeons, theirs are some of the few photos that adorn his desk.

After talking to Headrick for a few minutes, it becomes clear that, while a successful cardio-thoracic surgeon, he's a Southern-bred family man at heart, and his dogs hold a large place in his family.

That was exactly what drew him to the Iditarod - not just the dogs, but the family aspect, and the team approach.

Being part of a team is something Headrick understands well. The team approach is something that was modeled for him during his fellowship at the Mayo Clinic, something he strives for in his marriage and something he's worked to cultivate in his staff, he said.

"It's about structure, bonding with them, and teamwork," Headrick said of the Iditarod. "That's exactly what I deal with every day in medicine."

Without teamwork and a strong leader, the teams of more than a dozen seemingly unmanageable yelping, jumping dogs wouldn't be able to cover the more than 1,000 miles of tundra each March, with nothing more than themselves and some limited supplies, said Headrick.

He has a similarly unachievable-sounding goal: to drastically lower the number of lung cancer deaths locally. According to Headrick, cancer is the most common cause of death in Hamilton County, with lung cancer near the top of that list.

But knowing his team is behind him means he's got a shot at beating lung cancer back, he said.

"I've been doing this 17 years. At least 15 of those 17 years have been finding people and what role they need to be in," said Headrick. "I've been blessed in my career, but I'm quick to say it's not me; it's my team."

By helping to remove the stigma attached to smoking, which can often keep people from going to see the doctor, as well as touting the newest treatments, some of which take only a day, he believes he has a good chance at crossing his goal's finish line.

"If my team were a bunch of Malamutes, we'd have a good chance of winning 'the Iditarod,'" he said. "A lot of us have reached the point where we're tired of going to funerals."

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