Roles
Associate Professor of Radiation Oncology
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Biography
I went to Columbia University for college and am an alumni of the University of Miami where I received my MD, PhD degree. My PhD was in the neuroscience program in the department of physiology and biophysics. I studied under the mentorship of Ken Muller investigating the role of gap junctions, known as Pannexons, in the neuro-immune response to injury. It was during my PhD that I found the field of radiation oncology when one of my older sisters was diagnosed with breast cancer. Unfortunately, my family has the BRCA gene that predisposes the women in my family to breast and ovarian cancer. Subsequently, my 2 sisters have died of cancer. It was during their illnesses that I solidified my commitment to oncology and knew that I wanted to spend the rest of my life treating this disease and helping those who must suffer with in.
While in graduate school, I myself underwent radiation to my neck for a parotid tumor in 2008 here at SCCC. While I already knew at that time I was going to be a radiation oncologist, I had the opportunity to experience the treatments from a patient perspective. I am intimately aware of all the side effects and long term sequelae my patients endure. While I am cured and have very few residual side effects from my treatment, I know I am fortunate and not everyone is so lucky.
During my residency at the University of Michigan, I studied under the mentorship of Dr. Avraham Eisbruch, a leading expert in radiation oncology for head and neck cancer. With Dr. Eisbruch, I published several clinical research studies investigating prognostic factors for head and neck cancer as well as methods to reduce treatment toxicity. Upon my graduation, I was hired here at the University of Miami to be the primary head and neck radiation oncologist at Jackson Memorial Hospital. In this underserved population with very advanced disease, it is crucial to find ways to reduce treatment toxicity. -
Education & Training
Education
Post Graduate Training
Licensures and Certifications
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Honors & Awards
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Teaching Interests
I am interested in educating residents and medical students using the most recent literature and mentoring them on how to perform quality research. My clinical rotation is known amongst the residents to be one of the busiest and most demanding as my patients are sick and complicated and I push my residents to work hard. For junior residents, I designed my rotation to increase responsibility as they become more familiar with my service.
For the first 2 weeks, the residents observe me in all my clinical duties (patient encounters, treatment planning, etc) and I make a great effort to explain all of my thought processes and clinical judgments. In the 3rd week, I directly observe the residents perform all the tasks they saw me perform the first to weeks. This week has the most feedback sessions as I try to improve the resident performance. For the rest of the rotation, the residents see patients and perform tasks independently and then report the result to me for discussion and approval. I have found this method is less overwhelming for the residents and allows me to directly evaluate their competency and skills.
I think senior residents need to be given opportunities to use their clinical judgement independently. I therefore started an official palliative care rotation in Radiation Oncology, which is a clinical rotation for senior residents where they run a palliative service at JMH for 1-2 months. I created a schedule and curriculum for this rotation and meets with the residents weekly to review literature and cases. Senior residents are expected to be the patients' primary doctor and make all treatment related decisions. Supervising physicians are expected only to intervene if the resident makes a mistake or could potentially cause harm. This rotation allows residents to feel more autonomous than the 1 on 1 service rotations and gain confidence in their clinical skills while still having the security of a supervising physician. -
Research Interests
My goal is to create a comprehensive portfolio of research studies that all aim to improve the efficacy and reduce toxicity from head and neck cancer treatment. I see a major gap in the literature with regard to the treatment toxicity of skin and soft tissues of the neck. I believe this has been overlooked because of the difficulty in assessing this area clinically, as well as the focus on reducing swallowing and salivary dysfunction. However, with modern treatment methods such as arc therapy, I believe it is possible to spare the skin and soft tissues of the neck, along with the other organs at risk, and still create excellent plans. My career plan is to first create a new survey to capture the incidence and prevalence of the toxicity, find dosimetric, biological and imaging predictors of the toxicity, and then develop clinical trials to prevent and treat the toxicity. I believe this initial project has a lot of potential in spinning off into several projects. My initial project is a collaboration between myself and PM&R and I have a 2 medical students, and a residents working with me. I secured seed funding for my project from the RSNA in 2018-2019 and continued the project with the support of the Sylvester cancer center in 2019-2020. I have enrolled more than 80 patients so far and have 4 accepted abstracts at national meetings. I plan to be the expert in skin toxicity and fibrosis for head and neck cancer and I presented my study at the ECOG late effects committee. I hope to have a national presence as well and I am currently a head and neck abstract reviewer for the radiation oncology national meeting ASTRO. I hope one day to make head and neck radiation safer for all patients.
In addition to my fibrosis studies, I view mentoring residents and medical students in clinical research as a crucial part of my job. I created a clinical "lab" with monthly research meeting to give opportunities for medical students and residents to get involved in clinical research. I have published several peer reviewed articles and have multiple ongoing retrospective and dosimetric research projects in head and neck cancer, breast cancer, and ocular melanoma that are led by residents and medical students. -
Publications
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Professional Activities
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