SIX RESEARCHERS NAMED 2010 CANCER RESEARCH AWARDEES
Six cancer researchers have been selected by the Georgia Cancer Coalition (GCC) as recipients of the 2010 Cancer Research Awards, made possible through voluntary donations to the Georgia Cancer Research Fund on State Income Tax forms.
Awardees, selected from twelve proposals, include:
Khalid Salaita, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in the Department of Chemistry at Emory University, studying Notch signaling in breast cancer. This grant will ultimately help generate preliminary data critical to applying for National Cancer Institute (NCI) and National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants.
Yuan Liu, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology, Division of Cellular Molecular Biology and Physiology at Georgia State University, studying the inflammatory response in colon cancer.
Ravi Bellamkonda, Ph.D., a GCC Scholar and a Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech, studying how to mark brain tumor margins using a dye visible to the naked eye, so as to provide accurate visual cues to the surgeon during surgery.
Muthusamy Thangaraju, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor at the Medical College of Georgia, who will use these funds to continue to study breast cancer biology in the area of tumor suppressor genes and signaling mechanisms related to breast cancer.
Robert McKallip, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor of Immunology in the Division of Basic Medical Sciences at Mercer University School of Medicine in Macon, who is studying new adjuvant therapies for treating malignant melanoma. This grant will help develop the data necessary to support his study’s hypothesis, thus strengthening his proposal for an NIH award.
Zachary Wood, Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biochemistry at the University of Georgia in Athens, studying how to slow metastasis and prevent drug resistance in colorectal and lung cancer. Preliminary data from this study will make a grant application to NIH more competitive.
Each scientist will receive a one-year, $50,000 grant. This is the first year that Cancer Research Awards were made available to study all types of cancer. Legislation passed in 2009 removed prior restrictions to research in the areas of breast, prostate, or ovarian cancer.
“These research awards are important to our state’s scientists,” says Bill Todd, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Georgia Cancer Coalition. “It is a testament to the growing focus on cancer research among Georgia’s clinical and research investigators. We owe the program’s success to our citizens who support the drive to eradicate cancer.”
Since the 2000 inception of the State Income Tax Checkoff program, $2.75 million has been raised for cancer research, which is matched by each researcher’s organization. Sixty-one awards have been made possible by these generous contributions of Georgia’s citizens. A committee comprised of leading cancer researchers and clinicians conducted the competitive, peer-reviewed grant process.
For more information on Georgia’s Income Tax Checkoff program to benefit cancer research, go to the Georgia Cancer Coalition website at www.georgiacancer.org or call 404-584-7720.
KATHELEN AMOS NAMED CHAIRMAN OF GCC BOARD
January 4, 2010 −Kathelen V. Amos, President of the Aflac Foundation, and an ardent supporter of pediatric cancer programs in Georgia and around the country, has been elected to Chair the Board of Trustees of the Georgia Cancer Coalition for 2010-12, and has been appointed as a member of the Board of Trustees of Emory University.
Amos has been a Georgia Cancer Coalition board member since 2002, when she was Executive Vice President, Director of Corporate Communications and Deputy Counsel at Aflac, which she joined in 1985. Under her direction, Aflac launched their award-winning Aflac duck advertising campaign. She retired from Aflac in 2005, but retained her role as president of the Aflac Foundation and as the relationship advisor to the Aflac Cancer Center. She works with her husband, Dan, on his personal philanthropic endeavors and also serves as the president of the Paul S. Amos Educational Foundation.
In 1995, she initiated Aflac’s unprecedented charitable contribution to the Aflac Cancer Center and Blood Disorders Service at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. To date, that support has grown to more than $50 million. Aflac’s commitment is accompanied by the personal involvement and support of their executive management, sales agents and employees. Monetary endowments for specific programs have also been funded as “chairs,” including the Kathelen V. Amos Children’s Chair for Cancer Survivorship.
In Columbus, the Amos’ received the American Cancer Society’s “Visionary” award in 2007 in recognition of Aflac’s three major cancer research fundraising events in Muscogee County. She was also named “Volunteer of the Year” by Columbus Technical College in 2007 in recognition of her work as co-chair of their “Tomorrow’s Workforce…Today” campaign. Kathelen is a member of the board of trustees of Emory University, Brookstone School, the Community Foundation of the Chattahoochee Valley and Columbus Bank and Trust. Aflac has also supported the John B. Amos Cancer Center, a new library, Columbus State University and more in their home community.
Aflac also made major commitments to cancer research as a Founding Sponsor of the American Association of Cancer Research (AACR); sponsor of the Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University for their triple negative breast cancer research symposium; donor to Curing Kids Cancer; and generous contributor to numerous children’s cancer centers in Albany, New York; Nebraska; Los Angeles and San Diego, California and Southwest Florida.
“The Georgia Cancer Coalition is honored to have the business acumen, leadership, and personal commitment of Kathelen Amos as Chair. We look forward to making a significant impact in the state of Georgia under her direction,” says William J. Todd, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Georgia Cancer Coalition.
The Georgia Cancer Coalition leads Georgia's comprehensive cancer initiative, uniting people and organizations to work together to save lives and reduce suffering from cancer. As a public-private partnership, the Coalition works to strengthen existing cancer-related programs and create new initiatives to accelerate cancer prevention, early detection, research, and treatment. By providing assistance and guidance in the use of Georgia's resources, the Georgia Cancer Coalition hopes to reduce cancer mortality and incidence.
GEORGIA CANCER COALITION NAMES 19 DISTINGUISHED CANCER SCHOLARS
ATLANTA (June 30, 2009) The Georgia Cancer Coalition has selected 19 awardees for its prestigious Distinguished Cancer Clinicians and Scientists program. Distinguished Cancer Scholars receive from $50,000 to $150,000 in funding annually for five years to support their research. Many are recruited from out-of-state to work in Georgia’s research universities, medical schools, and hospitals. The Coalition’s goal is to strengthen the state’s research talent, capacity, infrastructure and funding. With the ninth round of awards completed, the number of active Distinguished Scholars stands at 119.
Appointments include: 7 from Emory University; 1 from Georgia Institute of Technology, 1 from Georgia State University, and 1 from St. Joseph’s Health System in Atlanta; 1 from the Medical Center of Central Georgia in Macon; 3 from Medical College of Georgia in Augusta; and 5 from the University of Georgia in Athens. Sponsoring institutions provide matching funding.
Begun in 2001, the Georgia Cancer Coalition’s Distinguished Cancer Clinicians and Scientists program is an investment in Georgia’s future as a national leader in cancer control. The Scholars’ history of grants, publications and patents as well as their potential for attracting future funding is considered. In fiscal year 2008, Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholars were responsible for securing $47 million in privately and federally funded research grants to the state of Georgia; over the program’s 8-year history, scholars have generated more than $200 million in funding.
Scholar selection is based on how the applicant’s research relates to the goals of the Coalition, the research priorities of the National Cancer Institute, and the strategic plan of the sponsoring institution. Applications are reviewed by a scientific review committee and an advisory review committee appointed by the Coalition in cooperation with Georgia’s research universities. Members rank candidates according to predetermined scientific and technical criteria.
“The National Cancer Institute has identified areas of discovery that hold promise for making significant progress against all cancers. The Distinguished Cancer Clinicians and Scientists program is the cornerstone of the Georgia Cancer Coalition’s efforts to advance scientific discovery into the prevention, treatment, causes, and cures of cancer. These scientists and clinicians play an important role in positioning Georgia as a national leader in cancer research,” says Bill Todd, President and Chief Executive Officer.
The Georgia Cancer Coalition is an independent, not-for-profit organization that unites government agencies, academic institutions, civic groups, corporations and health care organizations in a concerted effort to strengthen cancer prevention, research and treatment in Georgia, with the ultimate goal of making Georgia one of the nation’s premier states for cancer care. The mission is to reduce the number of cancer-related deaths in Georgia. The Coalition is the first of its kind in the nation and is fast becoming a national model. For further information, the official website is www.georgiacancer.org.
GCC HELPS EMORY RECRUIT 5 DISTINGUISHED CANCER SCHOLARS
Five scientists have been recruited to Emory University in Atlanta with support from the Georgia Cancer Coalition through its Distinguished Cancer Clinician and Scientist Program for 2008-09.
Walter J. Curran, M.D., was recruited from Thomas Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Sharmila Makhija, M.D., transferred from the University of Alabama at Birmingham; both Suresh S. Ramalingam, M.D., and Tofeek Kunle Owonikoko, M.D., Ph.D., came from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School; and Omer Kucuk, M.D., moved from Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit, Michigan. .
Dr. Curran is serving as the Lawrence W. Davis Professor and Chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Emory University, Service Chief of Radiation Oncology at the Emory Clinic and Chief Medical Officer of the Winship Cancer Institute (WCI). He is Group Chairman and Principal Investigator of the National Cancer Institute (NCI)-funded Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), the largest research organization in the world conducting clinical and translational research for patients with malignancies of the brain, head and neck, lung, gastrointestinal tract, and genitourinary system. He will lead a coordinated program of clinical trials testing new and potentially better methods of delivering radiation in conjunction with new anti-cancer medications.
Dr. Makhija joins Emory’s Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics as Director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology. An active member of NCI’s Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG), Dr. Makhija will help Emory develop innovative translational research and training programs in women’s cancer. Trained in gynecological oncology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Dr. Makhija was selected for the prestigious Women’s Reproductive Health Research Scholar Program (WRHR). Her research focused on chemoresistance for ovarian cancer and gene therapy strategies for gynecologic cancers. While at UAB, she developed research links with India, allowing for the enrollment of Indian women with HIV into a group trial on cancer screening techniques for women with HIV.
Dr. Ramalingam has been at Emory since 2007 as Acting Associate Professor of Hematology-Oncology and Director of the Translational Lung Cancer Program. He brings strong expertise in developing novel therapies for lung cancer, novel anti-cancer agent development and conducting clinical trials to improve outcomes for lung cancer patients. He’s also done extensive research on the treatment of elderly lung cancer patients. He is a member of the Lung and Aerodigestive Tract Oncology Program, chair of the Data Monitoring Committee, and a leader in the Clinical Trials Working Group of the Lung and Aerodigestive Malignancies Program at WCI.
Dr. Kucuk is Director of Emory’s Genitourinary Medical Oncology Program. An internationally recognized expert in cancer prevention, nutrition and chemoprevention, Dr. Kucuk has conducted pioneering studies with lycopene and soy isoflavones in the prevention and treatment of prostate cancer. With colleagues, he was the first to discover that soy isoflavones sensitize a variety of cancer cells --prostate, breast, pancreas, lung, renal and head and neck—to chemotherapy and radiation therapy. At Emory, he will continue his translational research into nutritional cancer prevention and conduct studies in patients with prostate, bladder and renal cancer, as well as other pre-malignant and malignant conditions.
Dr. Owonikoko will direct Lung Cancer Care at Emory Crawford Long Hospital, seeing patients with thoracic malignancies and solid tumors. He will continue his translational research in the biology of lung cancer, developing novel methods for its treatment and playing a central role in the early clinical trial program for tobacco-related cancers. He is scheduled to spend two months at the NCI Cancer Therapeutics Evaluation Program, working closely with investigators to identify novel anti-cancer agents.
The Coalition cooperates with Georgia’s research universities, medical schools, hospitals and nursing programs in the process of selecting scholars, with the goal of strengthening the state’s research talent, capacity and infrastructure. Since its inception in 2001, the Georgia Cancer Coalition has named 118 Distinguished Cancer Scholars. Scholar funding is an investment not only in Georgia’s future as a national leader in cancer control, but also is valuable in attracting increased funding to Georgia for cancer research. For starters, the Coalition contracts with the sponsoring institution to provide at least a dollar-for-dollar match. The review committee examines the scholars’ history of grants, publications and patents, and considers the researcher’s potential for attracting future funding. In fiscal year 2007, Georgia Cancer Coalition Distinguished Scholars were responsible for securing $47 million in privately and federally funded research grants to the state of Georgia. Selection is based on how the applicant’s research relates to the goals of the Coalition, the research priorities of the NCI, and the strategic plan of the sponsoring institution. Each application is reviewed by both an external scientific review committee and an advisory review committee, appointed by the Coalition in cooperation with Georgia’s research universities. Members rank scholars according to predetermined scientific and technical criteria.
“The National Cancer Institute has identified areas of discovery that hold promise for making significant progress against all cancers. The Distinguished Cancer Clinicians and Scientists program is the cornerstone of the Georgia Cancer Coalition’s efforts to advance scientific discovery into the prevention, treatment, causes, and cures of cancer. These scientists play an important role in positioning Georgia as a national leader in cancer research,” says Bill Todd, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Georgia Cancer Coalition.
GEORGIA CANCER COALITION SELECTS MEDICITY HIE PLATFORM TO POWER GEORGIA CANCER QUALITY INFORMATION EXCHANGE
SALT LAKE CITY-(Business Wire)-March 2, 2009 - Bill Todd, President and CEO of the Georgia Cancer Coalition (GCC), who will speak at HIMSS on April 4 in Chicago, Ill., announced today that the Coalition has selected Medicity as the technology platform for the Georgia Cancer Quality Information Exchange. The Exchange will serve as a trusted third party in the state to acquire, analyze and report de-identified patient data around quality measures from providers and hospitals that deliver cancer care. The Exchange will leverage technology to efficiently and cost-effectively measure the quality of patient-centered cancer care, improve patient outcomes and enhance adherence to industry standards through performance measurement and process change.
A comprehensive review of RFPs was conducted by the GCC’s Technology Advisory Board whose members include hospital CIOs, representatives from ACoS (The American College of Surgeons) and CCHIT (Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology). ”We selected Medicity because they were the only vendor to supply these vital elements: 1) a culture of flexibility, which is key to building a sustainable business model; 2) an adaptable, scalable and secure platform; and 3) an HIE business model that aligns with our vision to improve quality of cancer care as well as support translational research,” said Bill Todd, President and CEO of the Coalition. “Typically, discoveries around cancer care can take up to 15 years to go from the bench to the bedside. By leveraging Medicity's proven HIE technology, we can share evidence-based medicine in community care settings – where 85 percent of cancer care takes place – as well as communicate real-world results to research organizations to accelerate valuable research.”
The GCC will deploy the Exchange in three phases over approximately 9-12 months. The project, which began in February 2009, will involve three initial Exchange Members (provider sites), and will include data analysis, development of the HIE design, and deployment. The project will also integrate the de-identified patient data into the Exchange's analytics dashboard solution for measurement of provider and hospital performance, based on 52 quality-of-care indicators for Georgia identified by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) in its report, Assessing the Quality of Cancer Care: An Approach to Measurement in Georgia. Upon successful completion of initial phases, the GCC plans to roll out the Exchange to other cancer care providers across the state, and finalize its sustainability model and business plan.
Added Todd, “Medicity's HIE platform provides the unique ability to meet our providers' needs, wherever they are in the spectrum of electronic medical record (EMR) adoption and clinical data exchange. For example, the Exchange will be able to pull de-identified patient data from multiple hospitals, physicians and other ancillary clinical data sources and integrate that data, regardless of its origin, directly into our core platform; thus, enabling state-wide interoperability.”
Medicity serves as the technology platform of choice for local, regional and state-level HIEs, including Delaware Health Information Network (DHIN), Mississippi Coastal Health Information Exchange (MCHIE) and California RHIO (CalRHIO), and has shown proven success with the National Health Information Network (NHIN). In addition to HIE’s, Medicity is the leader in delivering collaborative care and clinical interoperability solutions to more than 500 hospitals and hundreds of thousands of physicians across the nation. The company has established thousands of data interfaces to more than 150 unique healthcare information technology (HIT) applications from every major HIT vendor and has integrated with more than 25 unique EMR systems.
“Medicity enables HIE and hospital customers to deliver seamless access to patient information stored in disparate systems across multiple care locations, resulting in improved patient care and reduced healthcare costs,” said Kipp Lassetter, M.D., C.E.O. of Medicity. “We are pleased to partner with the Georgia Cancer Coalition to launch what we believe is the first evidence-based, statewide cancer quality measurement program in the country. This ground-breaking initiative provides a replicable model for other states or regions seeking to establish similar HIEs.”
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