Dr. Thomas Bond is a general practitioner and chief medical officer with Parkview Physicians Group. Here’s what he has to say about why he chose the medical field, his career and how he balances it all.
Q1: Why did you decide to go into medicine?
I grew up next door to a physician. I would go to his house and look at his books and he would talk to me about medicine. And then I had an uncle who was only 30 years old when he died of cancer. That got me more interested in medicine. I wanted to help people. As a doctor of family medicine, I see patients of all ages. I attended Indiana University for my undergraduate studies and then went to Ross University in New York for medical school. I did my family practice residency at Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie.
Q2: Why did you pick family medicine as your specialty?
During the third and fourth year of medical school when you do your rotations in different specialties, I noticed every time we were meeting with patients, they would bring up other problems they were having. For example, at a cardiology meeting, the patients would say they’re also having some issues with their back or leg or they were having headaches. The specialist would often tell them that wasn’t their specialty and that they should go see their family doctor to address that. To me, I wanted to be a doctor that could take care of all the patient’s problems and then refer them on to a specialist when their condition was beyond what I could treat.
Another reason has to do with the relationships I form with my patients because I see them regularly. It’s a great feeling to know that I’ve been able to make a positive impact on them and their health. I also enjoy watching my patients grow up. Some of the first babies I delivered are now getting ready to go to college.
Q3: You’ve worked out of PPG’s New Haven office for your entire 18-year career. What is it about northeast Indiana that made you want to stay here?
As part of my medical training, I was in New York and Chicago and Connecticut and I just didn’t like the big cities. I really liked what Fort Wayne had to offer in terms of quality of living and raising a family. I couldn’t envision myself practicing anywhere else. Besides, all of our family and friends are here. My wife, Christine, and I are both natives of this area and we met when we were at North Side High School.
Q4: How do you balance your busy career with your family?
We have three children: 20-year-old Nicholas, 19-year-old Alex and 15-year-old Sophia. Nicholas is about to start his junior year at Huntington University. He’s a biology major and wants to be a physician. He’s thinking about going into family practice like I did, but he’s keeping his options open at this point. Alex will be a freshman this fall at Trine University in Angola. He’s interested in biomedical engineering and wants to do things like make artificial joints. Sophia is in high school and says she might want to be a doctor someday, but she’s still very young to be making a decision like that. All of the kids attended Leo High School and they all played soccer and travel soccer. We spent a lot of time driving to and from soccer matches on the weekends, but that time we had together in the car was priceless. It gave us a chance to really talk and it was great. We still try to take vacations as much as my schedule will allow. We went to Glacier National Park and that was one of our best trips. We went to Greece to visit relatives and really enjoyed that. There’s never enough time to travel as much as we’d like, but we try to make it a priority to spend time together.
Q5: Do you have any “words to live by” as a physician?
I treat my patients like I would a family member. I think that’s important and I think the patients appreciate that.
