Oveimar De la Cruz, MD

Biography

Helping patients ‘smile in the face of adversity.’

Oveimar De la Cruz was in med school in Colombia during the late 1980s when the AIDS and HIV epidemics hit his home country. “There was this unknown and deadly disease out there threatening what seemed to be everyone, and it put the infectious disease and scientific communities in the spotlight,” says Dr. De la Cruz. The threat piqued his interest in immunology and infections, so he attended several scientific meetings on the topics and was able to meet prominent physicians and researchers in the field. “I found the interaction of the immune system and infection just fascinating,” says the assistant professor at the VCU School of Medicine’s Division of Infectious Diseases.

Dr. De la Cruz also serves as a consultant for VCU Health’s Hume-Lee Transplant Center working closely with kidney, liver, heart, and pancreas transplantation teams.  Also, he is an Infectious Diseases specialist at VCU Massey Cancer Center’s Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) program. As transplantation requires manipulation of the immune system, infections are common. He works with individuals whose immune systems are impaired either from medications such as anti-rejection drugs for transplantation, or patients who are  being treated for hemato-oncologic diseases (blood cancers) with chemotherapeutic agents — infections can range from common skin and wound infections, pneumonia from bacteria and viruses, Urinaty tract infections and so-called "opportunistic pathogens" such as fungus or parasites.

Transplantation, Dr. De La Cruz says, is at the frontier of scientific research and medical practice. Novel immunosuppression and transplant procedures bring new infectious disease complications that keep specialists such as Dr. De la Cruz working to stay one step ahead of medical breakthroughs. The transplant infectious diseases scientific community is working diligently to include evidence-based medicine into treatments to optimize patient care. “Innovation is constantly happening, and our work often requires quickly incorporating these cutting-edge scientific developments in clinical practice to improve outcomes for patients who are out of options,” he says.

By their nature, transplants are complicated procedures, and patients must take it one day at a time, says the long-distance runner, who translates his preferred sport into advice for patients: “this is a marathon, not a sprint.”

“For transplant patients, things can change on a daily basis, so trying to predict your condition one year down the road sometimes creates unnecessary anxiety,” he says. Patients and care teams develop a strong bond over months of transplant procedures or treatment of hematologic conditions. “It is a humbling experience to witness how courageous and resilient patients can be as we endure this journey together,” says Dr. De la Cruz. “I love working with people who take the journey on a positive note, and are grateful to be given the gift of life again and smile in the face of adversity.”