Dr. Ganske takes Iowa work ethic to D.C.

The surgeon-U.S. representative hopes to further his battles for patients in a run this fall for the Senate.

By Kathleen Phalen, amednews correspondent. Sept. 23/30, 2002.

Greg Ganske, MD, learned early that things don't happen without effort. Working in his family's Manchester, Iowa, grocery store as a child, he was stocking shelves when other kids were fishing by the pond.

"My mom and dad taught me the value of being honest, the necessity of hard work," says Dr. Ganske, a plastic and reconstructive surgeon. "You don't get anywhere without hard work."

Greg Ganske, MD
Region: Midwest

So when he thought his Iowa congressman was out of touch, when he saw things in his own practice that made him uneasy, Dr. Ganske set out to do something about it.

He ran for Congress against a 36-year congressional veteran. And won.

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That was eight years ago.

The Republican congressman has been operating in a different sort of arena ever since. He's traded a solo practice of 100-hour workweeks in Des Moines for his Monday-through-Thursday life on Capitol Hill. He's exchanged individual patient contact for writing bills intended to help millions. He's traded the immediacy of the operating room for the sometimes slower-than-slow process of lawmaking.

"The legislative process is ongoing," Dr. Ganske says. "It takes years and years until it is signed into law."

There's one thing he didn't get to trade in -- his beeper. "I still carry a beeper, I can't get rid of it," he says, laughing. He likens the two professions to wrestling -- his high school sport.

Dr. Ganske was named one of the 50 most effective members of Congress.

"Being a surgeon or being in politics is like a contact sport. Success or failure depends on your effort."

This spring he announced his candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Running against incumbent Sen. Tom Harkin (D), Dr. Ganske is in what some have predicted to be one of the thorniest races this year. So he's digging in, pounding home his record, quickly recounting a litany of political differences between him and Harkin on everything from tort reform to the environment. He's confident he'll win.

If he's wrong? "I'll take a couple months off and go back to my practice."

Dr. Ganske is a roll-up-your-sleeves kind of guy, willing to go the full round even when it means standing up to members of his own party, as he has during the past seven years of debate over managed care patient protections. He's a surgeon, a farmer, a polished politician.

"I talk with him quite a bit on the issues," says Hunter Fuerste, MD, an ophthalmologist in Dubuque, Iowa, and past president of the Iowa Medical Society.

"He's always studied on every issue, not just health, but agriculture, highways. I'm amazed at how involved he is. He's passionate about doing the right thing, even if it puts him at odds with his own party."

Dr. Ganske's determination isn't limited to his life as a lawmaker. In the mid-1990s he volunteered for Operation Rainbow, a Houston-based organization delivering free surgical services to underprivileged children in the United States and around the globe. "His first mission was to Guatemala," says Bill Magee, president and CEO of the nonprofit group. "While there, he got a GI infection. He'd lie down between patients and rescrub despite his physical status. That shows a lot of guts."

The Guatemala episode didn't stop his volunteer treks; nor did contracting encephalitis in Peru. "The important thing to mention is, when Greg's been on these missions, he's not only healed and performed surgery on these kids, he did it when he was ill," Magee says. "He has a mental and moral toughness that's hard to beat."

True politics

Politics is tough business. There is pressure from lobbyists, lawyers, special interests. Sometimes it feels more like a battleground than a vehicle to make things better. Dr. Ganske says that's why doctors often recoil. "They are trained to solve problems. ... But there are too many lawyers in politics. Doctors must get involved. I know doctors are working harder than ever; they are exhausted. But they must be a player."

Now in his fourth term, Dr. Ganske has a long list of accomplishments, and Congressional Quarterly named him one of the 50 most effective members of the House and Senate. Serving on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, he's taken the lead on patient protection and health care reform; worked to make food safer and water cleaner; fought to open international markets, end agriculture set-asides and pass tax cuts; pushed for better education for the disabled; and recently penned a bioterrorism bill.

"He knows how a law affects patients. He knows this from seeing patients," Dr. Fuerste says.

An original author of the patients' bill of rights legislation, Dr. Ganske continues to fight for passage.

"In 1999, we had to overcome $100 million in lobbying from HMOs. It passed in the House. This was huge," he says. "Sometimes it's hard for doctors to understand the time it takes for things to happen. When I'm in the OR, I get an instrument slapped into my hand and I get the patient fixed. We're used to fixing things right away."

True moments

Mention wife Corrine Ganske, MD, a Des Moines family physician, and Greg Ganske's practiced verbiage fades. "The day I met Corrine was the luckiest day of my life," he says. They met in medical school, and they've been married 24 years. They have three children: Ingrid, Brigit and Karl. He credits his wife when talking about juggling this multilayered life.

"She enables me to do this. I leave on Monday morning and fly back on Thursday or Friday," he says. "She handles everything while I'm gone."

In 2000, the couple volunteered together in Vietnam. She was his first assistant. "We only scrubbed together once before," he says. "One day we were closing a lip on a little baby and Corrine was cutting the stitch on the lip. She cut it just right, and I said, 'You are very good with your hands. You would have been a good surgeon.' And she said, 'And with an awful lot more training, you would have been a good family physician.' "

Perhaps in contrast to his practiced Capitol Hill role or his precise surgeon's role, tales of family reveal another side of Dr. Ganske: a side where family biking across Iowa is more fun than campaigning; where ordering eggs at a Country Kitchen restaurant is more comfortable than shaking potential voters' hands.

"We need more people like Greg Ganske. Not only those who take the time from their practice to volunteer," says Operation Rainbow's Magee, "but those who take the time from their profession to serve their country."

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Greg Ganske, MD

Position: U.S. Representative, 4th Congressional District of Iowa; actively manages 160-acre Iowa farm
Born: March 31, 1949
Family: Married with three children
Specialty: Plastic and reconstructive surgery
Education: Bachelor of arts with honors in political and general science, University of Iowa, Iowa City, 1972; MD, University of Iowa College of Medicine, Iowa City, 1976
Post-doctoral training: University of Colorado Medical Center, Denver, general surgery, 1976-78; University of Oregon Health Science Center, Portland, general surgery, 1978-1982; Harvard Medical School, Boston, plastic surgery, 1982-84
Previous jobs: Solo medical practice in plastic and reconstructive surgery; lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves; hospital orderly; stock clerk in his father's Iowa grocery store
Personal note: He and his family participated in the annual RAGBRAI ride -- a bicycle ride across the state of Iowa.