PORT ANGELES — Dr. Allen Chen didn’t originally apply for the position of chief physician officer at Olympic Medical Center.
Such a job had never crossed his mind as he rose up through the ranks of university medical programs to become professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at University of California, Irvine.
But a medical scare gave OMC’s newest executive an opportunity to reassess his career in a way he’d simply never done before.
“About a year and a half ago, I lost my vision when I sustained retinal tears in both of my eyes, and over the next several months, I would have multiple surgeries,” Chen said.
The recovery regimen involved lying face down all day for two months while the gas bubbles injected into his eyes did their healing work.
It gave him plenty of time to simply think.
He loved teaching and conducting research to find better oncology treatments.
However, it was unclear when or if his compromised eyesight would allow him to continue as a clinician.
“I did a lot of soul searching, asking myself what are the really important things in life and what really mattered to me for the first time,” Chen said.
Could he — did he want to — continue on the academic trajectory of researching, publishing and always angling for the next bigger and more prestigious gig?
He thought about the experiences he had most enjoyed, specifically an internship after he graduated from medical school when he spent three months on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana working with residents to develop cancer screening programs and educational and health initiatives.
“Looking back, I remember thinking about how idealistic and happy I was, and how rewarding it was,” Chen said. “I told myself, well, here I am almost 25 years later, wouldn’t it be wonderful to go back to my roots and start working with communities again, especially communities in rural locations?”
When he visited Port Angeles last year to interview for a position as a radiation oncologist, he told OMC his eyesight was still not where he believed it needed to be.
That was when Scott Kennedy, OMC’s chief medical officer, pulled him aside and told him he looked like a good fit for its chief physician officer position, which had been open since November 2023.
The more Chen thought about it, the more the idea appealed to him. He would be able to draw on his passion for community outreach, developing systems to improve the way people access health care and tap into his professional network to try to recruit the 30-40 open provider positions at OMC.
“I really entered medicine to work with people, and I have a real passion for the underdog and the underserved,” he said.
Contributing to his decision, Chen said, was the friendly nature of the community and OMC leadership and staff.
Moving to Port Angeles also has been something of a homecoming.
Chen was born in Seattle, where his parents met after immigrating from Taiwan. He spent most of his childhood in Northern California and Colorado, where his family followed his dad, who worked for Boeing and in the aerospace industry.
After graduating from high school, Chen set off for Cornell University.
“I wanted to try living as far away from home as possible,” he said. “I really wanted to develop a sense of independence, and Ithaca, N.Y., is about as isolated of a place as there is in the U.S.”
After earning bachelor’s degrees in American history and the biological sciences at Cornell, he earned his medical degree at Yale University.
“Yale really prides itself on a non-traditional liberal style of medicine,” he said. “There are no grades and no tests, but it really teaches folks to think independently and to view education as a lifelong endeavor.”
It was a formative experience, he said.
“There were so many great, brilliant professors and resources and people studying amazing things, and I could just kind of pick and choose who I wanted to spend time with,” he said. “It really opened up my eyes.”
He completed internships in radiation oncology at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the University of San Francisco School of Medicine. He served as the residency director for radiation oncology at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine, vice chair of radiation oncology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and chair of radiation oncology at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City. He also earned an MBA at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management.
Previous to OMC, he was chair and professor of the Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of California, Irvine.
Chen purchased a home near Dungeness Recreation Area, conveniently located between OMC and the Olympic Medical Cancer Center in Sequim.
A factor in taking the chief physician officer position, he said, was OMC’s location.
“It’s spectacularly beautiful, it’s so unique, and the people here are among the most kind I’ve ever met,” Chen said. “It’s a thrill for me to be able to help enhance the level of medicine here and make OMC a beacon of pride in the community.”
Among his goals, he said, are building the community’s trust in OMC and expanding its services. Listening to people is the only way that can happen, and he’s eager to listen.
“My door is always open,” he said.
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Reporter Paula Hunt can be reached by email at paula.hunt@peninsuladailynews.com.
