UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center Magazine E-Edition 2017 | Page 5

Q: How would you describe the UAB Health
System Cancer Community Network that you
helped establish?
A: I think the UAB Health System Cancer
Community Network has the potential to have a
major impact on Alabama and the region. With the
network, we have the ability to work together, at both
the administrative and physician level, to utilize and
share data to improve quality and resource utilization
for cancer patients. You can foresee the day that by
working together we can assure that every individual
in the region with cancer will get the right care at
the right place at the right time.
Unexpected turns on the career path
Q: As a trained physician, were you always
interested in research?
A: I spent my first 11 years in private practice as a
gynecological oncologist here in Birmingham, doing
the usual routine of performing surgery, prescribing
and administering chemotherapy, and taking care
of patients. But I had the opportunity during those
years to continue in education and training of medical
students, residents, and fellows.
I was invited to become the director of the UAB
Division of Gynecologic Oncology out of private
practice with no real experience in the academic
setting, except for my training 10 years prior to that.
I was interested more in the education and clinical
practice. I never intended to be a researcher, but
when I returned to the university I had several great
mentors like Al LoBuglio, Bob Goldenberg, John
Hauth, and Michael Brooks who taught me how to
become a successful researcher.
Q: How did you pick up these skills so quickly?
A: The thing that was unusual was that I was
a GYN-oncologist, not an epidemiologist or a
statistician. To move into cancer prevention and
control was an unusual career step in those days.
During my time in private practice, I volunteered
with the American Cancer Society and was active
in the Alabama Chapter of the American College
of Surgeons — both organizations focused on
cancer prevention and control. I think it was those
opportunities that pushed me in this direction. A
few years after I got to UAB, Albert LoBuglio, the
second Cancer Center director, recognized I had the
connections across the community and had developed
some expertise in prevention and control. He gave
me the opportunity to form collaborations with
epidemiologists, behaviorists, statisticians, and other
individuals in Preventive Medicine like Mona Fouad
and Isabel Scarinci. I was able to pull together the
collaborative groups that brought unique skill sets to
the program.
Q: Would you say one of your strengths is
developing partnerships?
A: Yes, I was really a jack of all trades and a master
of none. I did clinical trials; I’ve led SPOREs
(Specialized Programs of Research Excellence) and
conducted translational research. I’ve led education
and training programs, creating partnerships with
Morehouse School of Medicine and Tuskegee
University — the results of that have been remarkable
in how we’ve increased the research capacity of
those institutions.
Although my expertise is not translational research,
in the past five years we’ve put the infrastructure
in place to develop the Alabama Drug Discovery
Alliance, the Center for Genomic Medicine, the
Molecular Tumor Board, and the Phase I clinical
trials program. That has placed us in a great position
to be a leader in translational research and precision
medicine, using genomic information to direct
our care.
“I think the
With our consortium with HudsonAlpha Institute
for Biotechnology and our continued work with the
Mitchell Cancer Institute, I hope that one day we
have a three-institution consortium that involves all
the major institutions that are delivering cancer care
in Alabama working together. UAB Health
The future of cancer care a major impact
Q: What do we still need to work on?
A: Health disparities are still significant. That
work is going to have to continue, but I think we
will approach it differently. The future I see is that
we will all have access. Eventually, everyone in the
United States will have insurance coverage. We are
not going to be the only developed country in the
world that does not provide health coverage for all
of our citizens. Therefore, it is no longer an access
problem — it is an education and income issue. I
think the next steps are learning more about the
social determinants of health, such as your zip code,
which can be more important than your genetic code
in terms of outcomes. We are not going to be able
to suddenly end poverty and end the problems with
education, though it would be a good start. Therefore,
we have to work around the social determinants of
health, at least in the short term.
# K N O W U A B C C C
•
System Cancer
Community
Network has the
potential to have
on Alabama and
the region.”
U A B . E D U / C A N C E R
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