Advancing cancer care and global health medical education

I had a wonderful time visiting the Fred Hutch Cancer Center and meeting our hematology/oncology faculty this past week. Most of us have had our lives affected by cancer directly or indirectly and when one of my dearest friends was diagnosed with a rare malignancy a few years ago, I channeled my devastation into what I do best and we quite literally embarked on a nationwide search to find the right cancer center and the best clinical trial. 

Those in the WWAMI community and beyond are very fortunate to have Fred Hutch serve as their comprehensive cancer program with high-quality specialized physicians, groundbreaking research, and access to a multitude of clinical trials.

Although the Fred Hutch is an independent organization, it serves as the cancer program for UW Medicine and hundreds of UW DOM faculty members provide patient care for this patient population and conduct impactful research. When I met the FHCC leadership on-site, I reiterated our commitment on the DOM side to continue to collaborate with them on the compassionate and comprehensive care of the cancer patients in our community. 

Later in the week, I had the opportunity to meet several visiting colleagues from Naivasha. Since 2012, UW has had a partnership with Navaisha Sub-County Referral Hospital through the Clinical Education Partnership Initiative, which was established by our own Dr. Carey Farquhar and her Kenyan colleagues. This partnership has provided our medicine residents and one chief resident per year with an invaluable global health and medical education experience in a low-resource setting. They updated me with their plans to turn their 2-bed ICU into a 10-bed ICU to better serve their community. 

Not gonna lie, I had a bit of anxiety just imagining how to triage patients in a hospital with only 2 ICU beds! Regardless, I was inspired by their stories and the obvious impact that the UW IM residency program has had on their hospital culture and the care of their local community. These kinds of relationships are truly an example of the beauty of academic medicine that I often speak about. They also encouraged me to visit their hospital in January when the weather there is much better than the weather here! I have to say that I'm pretty tempted!

On Friday I attended the second grand rounds of the year which highlighted the 2026 Chair of Medicine Scholar Award recipients. Huge congrats to Sally Baker, Megan Capozzi, Michael Granda, and Sarah Holton!! And thanks for your inspirational presentations and for teaching me about glycogen in diabetes, the role of alveolar macrophages (my favorite cell!) in Burkholderia pneumonia and progressive pulmonary fibrosis, and the role of the proximal tubule in renal dysfunction in cirrhosis. 

And that's a wrap for this particularly fun week! For those of you who missed my grand rounds last week or the grand rounds this week, feel free to watch them online at your convenience! 

P.S. Thanks so much to all the staff and faculty who came by our DOM open house on Thursday to officially welcome Alyssa to the role of VCFA! Special thanks to Czarina, Stefan, and Desiree who planned the perfect meet-and-greet with mini donuts, coffee, and swag! We will be holding open houses at Harborview on September 20 from 10am-12pm and at UWMC-Northwest on October 7 from 9-11am. 

P.P.S. I visited Mercer Island for the first time on Saturday when my old roommate from boarding school invited us over to dinner at her house.  We met when I was 15 and entering the Texas Academy of Math and Science (TAMS) - curious if there are any TAMSters floating around at UW? We seem to be everywhere nowadays. 🙂