Policy Program Helps Oncologists Advocate for Their Patients, Fellows Say

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Dr. Joanna Yang and Dr. Robert Daly join ASCO CEO Dr. Clifford A. Hudis to discuss the Health Policy Leadership Development Program (HP-LDP). As former fellows, Drs. Yang and Daly provide insight as to how the program has made them better advocates for their patients.

TRANSCRIPT

Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

Clifford Hudis: Welcome to this ASCO in Action podcast. This is ASCO's monthly podcast series, where we explore policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and the individuals we care for, people with cancer. My name is Clifford Hudis. And I'm the CEO of ASCO as well as the host of the ASCO in Action podcast series. For today's podcast, I am delighted to be joined by not one, but two of ASCO's rising leaders, Dr. Robert Daly and Dr. Joanna Yang. Both Dr. Daly and Dr. Yang are recent participants in ASCO's Health Policy Leadership Development Program, formerly known as the Health Policy Fellowship Program. This is a professional development program designed to build health policy and advocacy leadership expertise among our members. It's a one-year program where fellows get practical experience working with our policy and advocacy staff and council to craft policy positions and statements, along with other educational sessions on communication, leadership, and advocacy. Starting this year, participants will be able to participate as well in ASCO's Leadership Development Program, which offers mid-career oncologists the opportunity to improve their leadership skills and gain valuable training to set them up to be future leaders in oncology. Dr. Daly and Dr. Yang, welcome, and thank you for joining me today.

Joanna Yang: Thank you so much for the opportunity.

Robert Daly: Yes, thank you so much for having us.

CH: So Dr. Yang, I'm going to start with you. You were an ASCO Health Policy Fellow in 2017-2018. And I want to kick off our discussion by talking about what brought you to the program. Why were you interested in developing special expertise in policy work?

JY: Sure. So I've always been interested in health policy. And I had the opportunity to study health policy and health economics during undergrad. But of course, studying health policy is very different than creating or influencing health policy. When I started residency, I saw many ways in which health policy on a national level or even state level affected the patients I was caring for. And I felt compelled to do more. But the issue is that there is never any clear way for me to get involved or even to learn how I could learn how to shape health policy. And that's why the ASCO program is so great. I feel like it came at exactly the right time. I was looking for a way to learn more to develop the skills I needed to influence health policy. And ASCO came out with this structured and immersive experience where I could take the things that I had studied in school, and also the things that I'd seen in practice, and use them to actually have an impact on the patients I take care of.

CH: So Dr. Daly, you as well were one of our inaugural Fellows. What prompted your interest in applying for the program, especially given I think you were the first year?

RD: Yes.

CH: Right, so you took a leap off of the ledge there and said, I'll go first.

RD: Yeah, I'm similar to Dr. Yang. I had a real interest in cancer care delivery research during my fellowship at the University of Chicago. And I was lucky enough to be mentored by Funmi Olopade and Dr. Blase Polite. And Dr. Polite was really fundamental and helped developing the ASCO Health Policy Fellowship. And so I really saw this as an opportunity to augment that training but really gain skills in leadership, advocacy, and health policy, areas that I hadn't had exposure to in the past. So this seemed like the perfect program for me at that point in my career.

CH: I have to say parenthetically that I'm jealous of both of you, because while I was personally drawn, especially in later years in my career to the policy and advocacy aspects of work with ASCO-- and it truly is the reason that I moved from my traditional academic career to this role as CEO at ASCO-- I never, of course, had the opportunity to be trained and to learn how to do this professionally as you two have. So I am in awe of your ...