Dr. Maggie L.DiNome

Dr. Maggie DiNome meets every new patient at Duke Cancer Institute with the calm assurance that follows decades of breast-cancer surgery and service-line leadership. As Chief of Breast Surgery and medical director for community programs in Wake County, she convenes radiologists, medical oncologists, genetic counselors, and rehabilitation specialists in a single case-planning session before the first clinic visit. Digital dashboards display tumor imaging beside genomic results and personal goals such as preserving upper-body strength for childcare or returning to artistic work, allowing the opening plan to balance oncologic completeness with quality-of-life priorities. Clinic coordinators schedule mammography, core-needle biopsy, anesthesia evaluation, and lymphedema education on the same morning, while nurse navigators translate clinical jargon into concise explanations that show, for instance, how sentinel lymph-node mapping can spare full axillary dissection without compromising staging accuracy. Weekly quality rounds compare margin status, readmission frequency, and time to adjuvant therapy; immediate adjustments—like earlier speech-therapy consults or same-day pathology reads—follow when metrics drift. Patients therefore move through a pathway that feels orderly, transparent, and responsive, confident that every specialist understands the whole picture and remains reachable for questions.