Dr. Orit Freedman is passionate about the field of oncology because it incorporates patient-centred care along with cutting-edge research.

“As a medical oncologist, you have the privilege of following patients along their entire course of care and develop long-term relationships over years of therapy,” Dr. Freedman explains.

Born in Israel and travelling with her parents to three countries on two continents, Dr. Freedman’s family finally settled in Montreal.

“My father was a medical ethicist and he actually discouraged me from going into medicine because what he saw in medicine was not the best side of doctors,” she recalls. “But I always wanted to go into medicine, and I moved to Toronto for my training.”

Dr. Freedman splits her time between The Scarborough Hospital’s Oncology Clinic and Lakeridge Health Centre in Oshawa, which is the Central East LHIN’s designated cancer centre.

“I would say 98 per cent of oncology treatment can be done in any oncology centre, including our Oncology Clinic. And really, the best place to get treatment is closest to your home because travel expenses are significant, parking is expensive and being in a car for ten minutes versus two hours when you don’t feel well is a big deal,” Dr. Freedman adds. “For the other two per cent of patients who we cannot treat here, we have very good connections with other hospitals.

“My job is to ensure that patients who are treated here are treated to the best of the ability of any oncologist in any centre; that they get the same treatment here as they would at Princess Margaret Hospital or Sunnybrook.”

With a focus on breast and gynaecological cancers, Dr. Freedman is finding many women with metastatic breast cancer are living longer. 

“The nice thing about working in the oncology field is that advances are brought into the community fairly quickly from trial settings,” she explains. “Once trials have positive results, we have a very good mechanism in place to bring them forward to the Scarborough community. Much of that is thanks to the Medical Oncologists at The Scarborough Hospital who are advocating for that and are knowledgeable about what’s available.”

Dr. Freedman is thrilled with the Oncology Clinic’s “patient-centred care.”

“The nurses, the clerks, the physicians all have the attitude that when treating patients, they want to treat them as quickly as possible and in the most sensitive way,” she explains. “Patients can get lost easily in the downtown system. But here, we have very responsive staff. I have seen patients get treatment very quickly here, and that’s not always the case in the larger hospitals.

The mandate of our LHIN, Dr. Freedman adds, is to send patients within the LHIN to be treated because it’s better for patients to be treated within their own community. 

“It’s the exact same treatment no matter where you go, but you’re treated closer to home by people you’re familiar with and who you trust.”

The mother of two young children and two 18-year old stepchildren, Dr. Freedman spends most of her free time with family. However, she is still involved in a number of research projects and is heading up a group that is looking to improve quality and standards of breast cancer detection, wait times and treatment within the LHIN.