Addressing Structural Racism and Radiation Oncology
During this #DEIinRO Social Education session panelists participate in an engaging conversation about addressing structural racism and radiation oncology.
Speakers
Chika Madu, MD Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Moderator
Dr. Chika Madu is a radiation oncologist and attending physician at Northwell Health’s Department of Radiation Medicine at Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH). She will assume the role of chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at SIUH in January 2022. In her current position, she serves as the chair of the Cancer Committee at SIUH, as well as the chair of the Quality Assurance Committee in Radiation Medicine at SIUH. She also serves as the system-wide Radiation Medicine representative for the Northwell Health Physician Partners Quality Committee and Zucker School of Medicine’s Medical Faculty Council. She co-leads the Advocacy working group of the Committee on Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CHEDI) within the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO). She has a leadership role within the SIUH Women in Medicine Committee. She is also an alumna of Northwell Health’s Physician Leadership Development Program.
Dr. Madu earned her medical degree at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor and completed her residency training in radiation oncology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center. She has a primary interest in adult cancers. Proficient in several technological advances in the field of radiation medicine, she is a firm believer in multidisciplinary patient care and ensures collaboration with other physicians from other departments in order to improve treatment outcomes for cancer patients. Dr. Madu plays an active role in medical student and resident education, mentorship, research and the development of strategies aimed at eliminating healthcare disparities for all patients. She has been an invited lecturer at national/regional oncology conferences. She is a member of several professional societies, including the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO), the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), and the American Board of Radiology (ABR).
Curtiland Deville, MD Johns Hopkins Medicine Co-moderator
Dr. Curtiland Deville is an associate professor in the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He serves as clinical director of Sibley Radiation Oncology and medical director of the Johns Hopkins Proton Therapy Center. Of the nearly 100 proton therapy centers worldwide, Dr. Deville is the first and only Black medical director.
Dr. Deville’s clinical and research expertise involves prostate cancer radiotherapy. His research interests include improving tumor targeting and assessing toxicity profiles using modern radiation techniques, such as proton and photon therapy. He has co-authored over 100 peer-reviewed publications and serves as a senior GU editor for ASTRO's journal Advances in Radiation Oncology.
Dr. Deville has a research interest in physician workforce diversity as a means to address health equity. He is a leading voice in health equity, diversity and inclusion in radiation oncology. He serves as the immediate past Chair of the American Society for Radiation Oncology’s (ASTRO) Committee on Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and recently was appointed to the ASTRO Board of Directors as an ex-officio member.
Geraldine Jacobson, MD, FASTRO West Virginia University Cancer Institute ASTRO Leadership
Dr. Geraldine Jacobson is professor and chair of the Department of Radiation Oncology at West Virginia University in Morgantown, West Virginia. She obtained her MD from the University of Utah School of Medicine, MPH from the University of South Florida and MBA from the University of Chicago. Her clinical and research interests include image-guided radiation therapy for breast and gynecologic cancer, optimal treatment of brain metastases, minimizing cancer treatment toxicity, rural health care and reducing health care disparities.
Dr. Jacobson has been actively involved in ASTRO since attending the first ASTRO Advocacy Day in 2004. She has served on the ASTRO Board of Directors in several roles, including Chair of the Government Relations Council and Secretary/Treasurer of ASTRO. She is committed to increasing the racial and cultural diversity of ASTRO membership and radiation oncology trainees. She will be President of ASTRO after the Annual Meeting in October 2021.
Robert C. Miller, MD, MBA, FASTRO, The University of Tennessee Medical Center ASTRO Leadership
Dr. Miller, who served at the Mayo Clinic for 25 years, has conducted extensive clinical research on the use of compounds to mitigate the risk of normal tissue injury in patients undergoing radiation therapy. He has served as the national principal investigator/study chairman for five NIH funded national Phase III cooperative group clinical trials using these agents. In addition, he served as Vice Chair of the National Mayo Clinic Cancer Center Practice Committee, overseeing cancer care delivery at all of Mayo’s national sites, and Medical Director for Particle Therapy at Mayo Clinic Florida. He previously served as Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Albert and Lea Austin Mayo Clinic Health System. He is currently Director of Radiation Oncology at the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville, where the focus of his research is on Appalachian Health Disparities. Robert was founding Editor in Chief of Advances in Radiation Oncology, which has had a track devoted to disparities in cancer care since its inception. He received his Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Kentucky in 1993 and an MBA from Oxford University in 2013.
Brian Kavanagh, MD, MPH, FASTRO University of Colorado Denver, Aurora, Colorado ASTRO Leadership
Dr. Brian Kavanagh graduated from the Tulane University School of Medicine and School of Public Health before completing a residency in radiation oncology at Duke University, where he was an American Cancer Society Fellow in his senior year. After serving on the faculty of the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University, he moved to the University of Colorado, where he is now Professor and Chair of Radiation Oncology. He is a former President and Chair of the American Society for Radiation Oncology and remains active in ASTRO’s Health Policy and other committees. His academic interests have spanned a range of topics over the years.
Christina Chapman, MD University of Michigan, College of Literature, Science, and The Arts Panelist
Dr. Christina Chapman is a radiation oncologist specializing in head and neck and lung cancer and health equity research. She has grants from the National Institutes of Health to use simulation modeling to examine strategies to reduce breast cancer disparities for Black women. She also investigates strategies to improve quality of care for the veteran population and to increase diversity, equity and inclusion in the physician workforce.
Melissa Simon, MD, MPH Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine Panelist
Dr. Melissa Simon's primary research interests are aimed at promoting health equity and eliminating health disparities among low income, medically underserved women across the lifespan. Integrating health services research with social epidemiologic models, Dr. Simon's research focuses on interventions, such as patient navigation and community health outreach workers, that aim to reduce and eliminate such disparities. Within this context, Dr. Simon prefers to leverage culture and community to achieve these goals and thereby integrates community-based participatory research framework into her work. She also has a strong portfolio of workforce development programs, including the world's first health care pipeline development free massive open online course, Career 911: Your Future Job in Medicine and Health Care, on the Coursera platform. She is the founding director of the Center for Health Equity Transformation and the Chicago Cancer Health Equity Collaborative. She serves as a member of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) and the National Academy of Medicine's Roundtable for the Promotion of Health Equity.
Raymond Mailhot Vega, MD, MPH University of Florida Health Proton Therapy Institute Panelist
Dr. Mailhot Vega is a radiation oncologist at the University of Florida (UF), where he works at their Health Proton Therapy Institute. He directs the UF lymphoma radiotherapy program and also sees patients with breast cancer and pediatric cancers. He leads the ASTRO workforce group for the Committee on Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (CHEDI). His research focuses include optimizing radiotherapy selection and indications across different malignancies, maximizing survivorship for young people and health equity.
