Pajeau leads center

Dr. Mark Pajeau switched careers to connect with and care for people. 

Now, as the new director of the Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Cancer Center at Jay County, he’s working to help area residents get the treatment they need locally. 

Pajeau, who was hired as a hematology and oncology physician by IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital in Muncie in April 2018, began working at the Cancer Center in December. 

It’s helpful for people with cancer to have convenient access to care, Pajeau said, especially if they are fatigued from treatment. 

“It benefits people in this community because this is a very good hospital and people feel comfortable coming here,” Pajeau said. “It makes it easier on people. They don’t have to travel, and when people have cancer and they don’t feel well, siting in the car for hours is not a good thing.” 

The Cancer Center was established on the Indiana University Health Jay Hospital campus in 2014. It’s a fully functional center, providing medical oncology treatments including chemotherapy. 

Pajeau is in Portland on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, seeing patients all day. 

Many have cancer, but as a hematologist he also treats patients for benign blood disorders such as anemia or B12 deficiency. 

The Chicago native didn’t originally start out in the medical field. He first had a job with Monsanto genetically engineering corn, but felt isolated working in a lab. Switching to medicine felt like a logical choice. 

“Hematology/oncology is really applied molecular biology so it kind of dovetails into what I was doing,” Pajeau said. “And I get to see people and interact with people, be social. It’s very satisfying because you’re directly helping people and you see it.” 

After deciding to change his career path, Pajeau attended University of Illinois College of Medicine at Rockford. He did his residency at University of Virginia and completed his fellowship in hematology/oncology at West Virginia University in 2011. Before being hired at IU Health Ball Memorial, Pajeau worked for Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes. 

IU Health Jay president Dave Hyatt said Pajeau’s qualifications spoke for themselves when he was selected to lead the Cancer Center. But Pajeau will also be able to connect to his patients and make them feel comfortable, Hyatt said. 

“When we hire and recruit, we look for folks not only with clinical skills, (but who can) provide that holistic care,” Hyatt said. “So much of providing patient care is not just the medicine but the communication and talking to people about their disease and engaging them in their care, and I think Dr. Pajeau will be excellent at that.” 

Pajeau, who lives in Muncie with his family, said he looking forward to continuing to provide care for Jay County residents and making cancer treatment as easy as possible for them. 

“We actually expanded the clinic from one day to two days. If we need to expand it more, we will,” Pajeau said. “We would like to treat people in the community and make it convenient for them. That’s probably the biggest thing.”