Who Are We?

Overlake Cancer Center is a privately-owned practice of four medical oncologists who are part of Overlake Internal Medicine Associates (OIMA) which provides primary internal medicine and specialty care to the community with 30 physicians. While we work very closely and in conjunction with Overlake Hospital Medical Center and provide in-hospital care for our patients, we are separate and managed separately.

Physicians

There are four physicians at Overlake Cancer Center:

Nicholas L. Kovach, MD
Dr. Kovach is a native of the Northwest, having been born and raised in Oregon. After graduating from Oregon Health Sciences University, he completed residency training at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Wanting to return to the Northwest, he came to Seattle and was with the University of Washington for 12 years treating patients with cancer and blood disorders at Harborview Medical Center. While having authored research articles and several clinical book chapters during that time, his primary interest was patient care. Living with his partner Jan and their two girls, he decided to commit to focusing on patient care on the Eastside and came to Overlake and Overlake Internal Medicine Associates in 1999. Board certified in internal medicine, medical oncology and hematology, he currently practices in all areas of oncology and hematology, but has a special interest in blood-related cancers such as lymphoma and leukemia, as well as all solid malignancies including lung, breast and colon cancer.

Tanya Austin Wahl, MD
Dr. Wahl is a native of the Northwest and received her Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Washington. She completed her MD degree at Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, NC, and her internship and residency at Stanford University School of Medicine in Stanford, CA. She was selected to serve as Chief Resident in Internal Medicine at Stanford. Dr. Wahl completed a fellowship in Hematology at the University of Washington/Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. She has a special interest in breast cancer and in clinical research.

Kathryn Crossland, MD
Kathryn Crossland is originally from a small farming community in the San Joaquin Valley of California. She was in the second class of women at Caltech in Pasadena, receiving her degree in Biology. While completing her PhD in Immunology at UC Berkeley, she volunteered at the Berkeley Free Clinic, providing basic health care to the homeless. This led to an interest in medicine, and she completed her MD degree at Harvard Medical School in 1984. She returned to the west coast to complete an internal medicine residency and hematology/oncology fellowship at UW/Fred Hutchinson, and is board certified in medical oncology, hematology and internal medicine. In her spare time, Dr. Crossland is the busy mother of 3 boys, ages 9, 13, and 16 and enjoys skiing and sailing.

J. Walter Smith, MD
Dr. Walter Smith was born on a dairy farm in New Zealand, and attended University of Wellington, NZ, where he majored in biochemistry. He completed his masters degree in biochemistry then received a scholarship to study at the University of Hawaii. While there, his interests turned to medicine and he transferred to the University of Chicago to complete his MD degree. His internal medicine residency was in Boston at Massachusetts General Hospital, and he completed his hematology/oncology fellowship training at the UW/Fred Hutch. He is board certified in medical oncology, hematology and internal medicine. Dr. Smith is an avid sailor, enjoys gardening, and is the proud father of 2 children, ages 22 and 25.

Support Staff:

Overlake Internal Medicine Associates has over 100 employees that live and work in our community. Within the Oncology department, there are a variety of excellent support staff including:

Starting from when you enter, you will be greeted by our Patient Service Coordinators, Rachael or Maggie. Their job is not just to greet you, although they enjoy that aspect of their job very much, but also they are critical in the first step of making your visit as easy as possible-dealing with your insurance provider. To spare you more headaches and frustration, it is absolutely critical to have the right information and have all necessary referrals in place. As frustrating as it seems to be asked about your information, having the referral set-up and having the correct information on you will save you hours of frustration in dealing with the insurance company. Without that, they will typically refuses to pay your bill and leave it to you to pay. The same is true about co-pays. We are obligated to collect those. Without it, the insurance company assumes a visit didn’t happen and therefore they will not pay the rest of your bill.

Overlake Cancer Center has an outstanding staff of Medical Assistants and Registered Nurses, including our direct physician support staff of Nicole with Dr. Kovach, Jamie with Dr. Crossland, Melissa with Dr. Wahl and Patty with Dr. Smith. They will assist you in getting into the exam rooms, checking your vitals and organizing your information. Feel free to bring up questions and concerns with them. Should you need to call in, you will be directed to them based upon which physician you see. They will help resolve what questions or issues you may have. They will review your concerns with us and we will determine the necessary steps. Often, to speed up the process for you, they will contact you and arrange those next steps.

For those of you who require the use of our infusion staff, you will appreciate the care from our Infusion Nurses Annie, Sharon, Valorie, Lisa and Sherry. Their interest and motivation is to help you deal with your illness as efficiently and caring as possible and ease the fear of receiving treatment. Don't hesitate to ask them about your care and what to expect. They are skilled and trained in handling and administering chemotherapy. That chemotherapy is mixed by our Pharmacist, Vicki. She specialized in the preparation of your medications and is an invaluable resource for questions about your medications.

Finally, helping you weave through the insurance maze are those in our billing office including Bryan, who is located in our clinic, and others including Catherine who are located a block away in our billing office. They will often be your point of contact for dealing with issues with the billing of your insurance company. That process is often complex and they are here to help you solve those problems. Sarah is our office manager and will help in this process. We are all here to help you deal with this difficult time in your life. Talk to us about your concerns and needs.