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Blogs

ASCOconnection.org is a forum for the exchange of views on topical issues in the field of oncology. The views expressed in the blogs, comments, and forums belong to the authors. They do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Please read the Commenting Guidelines.

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I was really, really ready for my summer vacation this year. As I’m sure you agree, taking care of patients with cancer can be physically and emotionally exhausting. Limping through the last weeks of August, I couldn’t wait to sit on the beach with my husband and two sons without my cell phone or...
A while back I wrote about Watson, IBM’s computer that trounced the competition on the Jeopardy! game show. I mentioned then that IBM was thinking of applying the technology to medical purposes...
One of the interests I have developed over time is in the arena of cancer survivorship, specifically female sexual heath after cancer and its treatment. Having worked at Memorial Sloan-Kettering both as a fellow and as a junior faculty member, I worked closely with colleagues in Gynecology,...
Yesterday, the Journal of Clinical Oncology released an ASCO Policy Statement addressing the challenges and opportunities in U.S. health care reform to reduce cancer care disparities.
You just received your July issue of JOP. This is the Journal's first thematic issue addressing electronic health records (EHRs). It is long overdue. Three manuscripts in the issue set up the legislative and regulatory underpinning related to the topic....
I just read the Personal History column in the June 13 & 20, 2011, New Yorker—“The Aquarium”— a powerful recounting by Aleksandar...
The July 6th issue of JAMA (306: 36-38, 2011) contains the CDC’s listing of the ten top public health achievements in the United States in the past decade. It makes an interesting read.
There is no mistaking that the notion of hope is pervasive at the Annual Meeting. During Sunday's Plenary Session there was a nearly palpable energy in the room: Hope for what these findings might mean for our patients! Hope that these therapies may lead to better outcomes for...
I have been working on my Presidential Address in recent weeks, an address that I wanted to end by looking back to the moral center of our profession. In doing so I came across Francisco Goya’s ...
The last few weeks before the Annual Meeting are an increasingly frenzied period for ASCO staff and for your president. Orchestrating the meeting of 30,000 oncology professionals requires a great deal of work by staff.  There is also, inevitably, some last minute reshuffling of the scientific...
This is a quick blog post to note that CCHIT, the Certification Commission for Health Information Technology, today announced the availability of the...
In early February, my new patient was a middle-aged woman from here in Silicon Valley with a self-discovered 2 cm right breast mass. Her internist was all over this. She quickly had a core needle biopsy, was evaluated by one of our breast surgeons, and was referred to me for an opinion regarding...
Many oncologists have probably been following Dr. Peter Bach’s moving and beautifully written series, recently concluded in the New York Times, about his wife Ruth's breast cancer...
What is old, is new again. Off-label use of oncology drugs is common; and has long been the focus of controversy. Payers are often confused by the broad use of a therapeutic across seemingly unrelated diagnoses. They look to the FDA label for guidance on the specific use of a drug. Yet the FDA-...
ASCO and its members, whether we recognize it or not, are in the quality business. Our members, because society has an expectation of a high standard of care from physicians; our Society, because we are charged with helping establish the standards by which our members' claims to quality care are...
I was recently caught off guard by a couple of simply warm and beautiful days here in Boston—they seemed to be some sort of promise that spring must indeed be coming! The concept of renewal has since been on my mind. No, not the usual items that the term renewal conjures up (you know, licenses,...
Does anyone other than me find what happened on Jeopardy! this week somewhat freaky? For those of you not up with the cultural zeitgeist, an IBM computer named Watson absolutely destroyed the two best Jeopardy! contestants in a three-day contest, answering question after question correctly in an...
Finding myself with an extra day prior to the start of ASCO GU, (no offense meant to SUO and ASTRO - just what I have been calling the meeting for many years) here in sunny Florida, I have finally caught up with some of the many things left...

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