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Born in Belgium in 1950 of parents who met during WW-II, I lived most of my life in the United States, with occasional returns to Belgium and a few years spent in Cambodia in my youth.

I returned to Belgium in 2001 to care for family, and have lived here to the present.

A graduate of Tulane University with studies in English and French Literature, Art History, Theatre, I participated in many activities in the university’s Music Department and throughout the city.

After spending some time working on the island of Guam, I returned to the Washington, DC area, and continued musical studies while working in local hospitals, taking science courses, and conducting Genetics Research.

I entered Medical School at the George Washington University Medical Center in 1976.

After graduating with a Doctor of Medicine Degree, I was accepted into Surgical Residency which I completed in 1986. During those years, Surgical Research was a large part of my activities while acquiring clinical skills across the surgical subspecialties. Research projects included developing techniques for pancreatic islet cell separation and auto-transplantation, defining the presence of extra-thyroidal calcitonin, and pursuing and defining its origins from the pulmonary neuroendocrine cell, then extending this work to define the role of extrathyroidal calcitonin in patients with large burns, and inhalational injuries. Published findings at that time continue to influence further published research today, and specifically procalcitonin’s role in pulmonary illnesses, pneumonia, and including the present COVID-19 clinical setting.

For 18 months after completing training, I worked in a small hospital’s Emergency Department (Warrenton, VA), working 24 hour shifts, as the only physician during those hours directing and managing the care of an average of 114 patients per day. Once the hospital where I wanted to establish my practice had been built, I began the private practice of General Surgery at several hospitals in Northern Virginia, also serving several years as ICU Director in one of these. That position was accompanied by the early development of a Quality ICU database system in which all patients were entered and studied, contributing to improved patient outcomes, and feedback for those providing care. I served at that time as Director of the Trauma Service at the same hospital. Early use of fine needle aspiration (FNA) and immediate cytology was also implemented during this period, simplifying the management of breast and thyroid masses, and other disease states presenting with a mass, in clinical practice.

In January 2000 these activities were interrupted to devote more attention to family members who had become ill. Eventually, during 2001, a transition was effected to bring members of my family back to where they had begun their lives in eastern Belgium. I also assumed the care of a handicapped cousin, continuing end of life care for these until these challenging needs had come to an end. Given the unfortunate evolutions in private practice that I had lived through, along with other professionals in the United States leading up to that time (late 1990’s), I elected to stay in my family’s small town in Belgium, even after family needs had become less pressing, rather than returning to the United States.

While here, my primary medical and scientific activity growing out of prior studies and training was related to an in-depth study of 1,25 hydroxycholecalciferol (Vit-D) in the population around me, and presenting results through presentations made locally at the Clinique du Soleil, which I began 10 years ago. The goal was to counter the high frequency of deficient serum Vit-D levels in populations where I now reside. An additional activity that grew out of that interest, was the case study of individuals meeting clinical criteria for the newly accepted diagnosis in the DSM-5, of Prolonged Grief Disorder after the death of a loved one.

This psychosocial research in collaboration with Holly G. Prigerson, PhD of Harvard and the Weil Cornell School of Medicine, involves applying her work through French translations and application to those suffering this entity here in Belgium. 

Presentation of such case reports, including one scheduled for Utrecht, Holland last March, were interrupted by the appearance of the present viral pandemic.

An additional ongoing project involves the development of a protocol for the use of Red and Near-Infrared wavelenghts in a critical care setting for those with pulmonary involvement with COVID-19.

That is found on this page in English and French.

The continued attraction for a scientific approach to problems arising out of the worldwide infestation with the SARS-CoV-2 virus has sustained new activities in spite of more limited displacements, but also more limited resources at hand.

Studying those currently referred to as the “long-term” COVID-19 variant of this illness, is ongoing. Initial inroads towards understanding this rather atypical viral illness are being made with a detailed questionnaire. This tool has already received enough response to generate much interest personally, but additionally from others located at a distance. Currently, this survey device will soon be extended to populations typically thought of as less well served, and with already documented worse outcomes from the COVID-19 illness. In so doing, collaboration with other researchers located around our world, has been initiated, and this should extend significantly the knowledge obtained on this and other topics that will likely emerge.

At the same time, a portion of available time and effort is dedicated to pursuing a deeper understanding of intentional healing at a distance. That topic is introduced and expanded upon elsewhere on this site. While such an undertaking may be viewed by some as unscientific, and quickly glossed over, that may be a myopic view of science and its boundaries. At times when science doesn’t seem to fit or to know, one can correctly add without concern, that science may not know yet. So this study is also being pursued simultaneously, and with whatever tools can contribute to its badly needed success at this time.

In pursuing current interests, I am not presently the employee of any orgaization, nor sect, nor affilitaed with any organized religious group nor teaching institution. How results will be shared has already been commented on elsewhere. Where patients can benefit from activities sharing my study results, I will be in favor of implementing such efforts. That sense of openness and collaboration can be found here.

While I have in years past participated in contributing to the peer-reviewed literature in my disciplines, that should not be the only, nor is it always the best, method of getting what has been learned to those who can benefit. I have collaborated with those who have successfully pursued as a goal, a quite extensive peer-reviewed bibliography in their CV. That was never a personal goal. That choice has not kept me from providing compassionate, professional, science-based and effective care to many patients during many years. When elected by my peers to one position or another in the past, good outcomes and low complication rates were I believe, the primary motivators for such votes of confidence.

Professionally for years I have expressed the central goal of my practice as follows: to relieve suffering, and heal the sick where possible. All of the above activities would seem now to have direct ties.

So some things never change.

If more information about some of the scientific research carried out during "formative years" is of any interest, here are a few anecdotes. >>>>>>

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