Cancer Currents for September 2007

News and Notes

New Vice President for Cancer Programs
Michael Ward has joined the Cancer Center as the Vice President for Cancer Programs. Ward previously worked on development of the Patient Safety and Training Center, and has overseen and developed many of DHMC’s regional practices and programs over 20 years. He will continue to be involved in these activities while also working closely with Mark Israel, MD, Director of the Cancer Center.

New Director of Clinical Information Services
Mark Carey has been promoted to the Director of Clinical Information Services. He will be leading the development and extension of clinical data systems. A cornerstone of his work is the establishment of a new clinical trials management system (Velos) to manage data collection for reports and study analysis. He was previously Project Director in the Cancer Center’s Biostatistics Shared Resource.

Bone Marrow Transplant Program Recognized
The National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) recognized Kenneth Meehan, MD, Lynn Root, RN, Zbigniew Szczepiorkowski, MD, PhD, FACP, and Norris Cotton Cancer Center’s Bone Marrow Transplant Program for the success of its unrelated donor transplant program. Last year BMT participated in 18 peripheral blood stem cell and seven bone marrow collections from unrelated donors.

Collins Selected for Leadership Recognition
E. Dale Collins, MD, has been chosen for a program that prepares senior women faculty for leadership at academic health centers. The curriculum for the 2007-2008 Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine fellowship includes traditional MBA training oriented towards the academic health center environment, as well as activities in leadership, communications, and information and learning technologies. Collins was one of 48 women selected nationwide.

Fellow Wins MD Anderson Award
Congratulations to Karen Liby, PhD, a research fellow in pharmacology, for winning the Wilson S. Stone Memorial Award from the MD Anderson Cancer Center. The award recognizes an outstanding young scientist doing biomedical science in the U.S. Liby is in her fifth year working with Michael Sporn testing new drugs and drug combinations for the prevention and treatment of cancer, and defining the molecular mechanism of action of these drugs, which include synthetic triterpenoids, selective estrogen receptor modulators, and rexinoids.