Member Spotlight
“1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue”

During his years in Congress, Dr. Ganske maintained his surgical skills by frequently operating in third-world countries. He’s putting those skills back in use here in Des Moines by restarting his plastic surgery practice. He’s even in the same office at 1301 Penn Avenue. “I painted the office the same color, moved my furniture back and Mom even gave me an identical plant to hang—it’s like déjà vu all over again. I look back over my years in Congress and some of it feels like a dream!”

In Congress, Dr. Ganske was a leader on health care issues. “I think it helped to have a ‘doctor in the House’ when the House of Representatives was debating bills on healthcare. I wish I were in the Senate to help make Medicare fair to Iowa, but I have to admit that I really missed taking care of patients and I’m very happy being back in practice.”

“The political process is a difficult one. There are so many groups working to get their agenda passed. If you get a bill passed this year, your opponents will work to change the legislation back to what it was in the next Congress.”

“Bills can take years to pass. Politics takes a lot of patience. There is no instant gratification in politics like there is in medicine. At the end of a cleft lip operation I’ve fixed that patient for life. It is more of struggle in politics.”

Dr. Ganske did make a difference in Congress. He helped write the welfare reform bill, was instrumental in FDA reform, and, of course, was the lead author of the patients’ bill of rights debate which shined the spotlight on HMO abuses and has significantly modified HMO practices. In the aftermath of 9-11, Dr. Ganske authored the House Aviation Security Bill, and introduced in the House the Bio-terrorism Protection Act, which authorized billions of dollars for public health, vaccines and medications. During Ganske’s campaign for the Senate, Mayor Rudy Giuliani publicly thanked Dr. Ganske for his involvement with the passing of the aviation security and bio-terrorism protection bills.

After his bid for the Senate, Dr. Ganske never thought about staying in Washington and becoming a highly paid lobbyist. “I went into politics out of a sense of public service. I believe people should serve in office and return to their prior careers. And my family is happy that I won’t be spending so much time away from home, too! My wife, Corrine, really helped me serve in Congress by picking up the slack at home when I was gone. I owe her big time!”

“What can you tell your fellow physicians about your political experience?” “Physicians frequently ask my advice about running for office. Politics is a difficult lifestyle—you lose time with your family even if they move to Washington, D. C., you lose your privacy, it is not as glamorous as it may seem. You work long hours, go home to a small apartment, and do paperwork late into the night. Most doctors would suffer financial loss to close their practices. Nevertheless, the advice Gov. Bob Ray gave me is true: You will meet many wonderful people, deal with important issues and have sense that you are making a difference. If I had it to do over, I would!”

Has being a Congressman made you change the way you will practice medicine? “Being a Congressman is very educational. I met and learned from interesting people nationally and from Iowa whom I otherwise would have never known. It is a very broadening experience to understand the various angles of a public policy question and how it affects people differently. I would say this—I became a better listener in politics, and being a good listener is essential to being a good doctor.”

“One of the lessons I took from medicine to politics was to ‘first do not harm.’ In plastic surgery you always weigh the benefits versus the complications and how far to push a procedure. Communicating with patients to understand their goals, and whether those goals are realistic is important. That is what I did day after day in Congress: listen and try to determine whether or not a goal for an individual constituent was a good idea for the government. By the same token, once in awhile a patient has a goal that may not be realistic. A doctor has to be honest with the patient, a Congressman should be honest with his constituents.”

What have you being doing since the election? “First, our family dealt with the death of my father. Then I did a ‘surgical sabbatical’ with friends here in Iowa and in Washington, D.C. and Boston. It’s great to see patients again and operate as a ‘visiting professor’. It is not very often that a doctor gets to return to academic centers and actually operate and see patients, sharing ideas and techniques. Some things have improved in the past eight years in my field, and some have not proven out.”

Will you have the same type of practice? “I’m back in solo practice doing a broad range of reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. I believe that there is cross-fertilization in reconstructive and cosmetic techniques. Some of the techniques in craniofacial surgery for reconstruction of birth defects, for example, are useful in cosmetic cases, and vice versa. My practice before Congress included hand surgery, breast surgery, pediatric plastic surgery, breast cancer reconstruction, as well as the usual cosmetic cases.”

Do you have any final thoughts you would like to share with your colleagues? “I am very thankful to all the doctors across the state and nation who were so supportive of my political career...it meant a lot to me to receive the support of my fellow physicians.”

“After my loss of the election I received hundreds and hundreds of letters from physicians around the state and country thanking me for the time I took away from my practice. I am very appreciative of their kind notes.

“I encourage physicians to get involved in politics, to get to know their state and federal legislators and make their voices heard. If you aren’t involved, some will be and you may disagree! It is crucial with all that is going on in health care that physicians’ knowledge and experience be shared on behalf of our patients with our political representatives.”