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Oncology, Etc. — Out of this World: Astronaut Physicians (Part 2)

Oncology, Etc. — Out of this World: Astronaut Physicians (Part 2)

FromASCO Education


Oncology, Etc. — Out of this World: Astronaut Physicians (Part 2)

FromASCO Education

ratings:
Length:
16 minutes
Released:
Mar 22, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode

Description

In the second of our two-part interview, Oncology, Etc. hosts Drs. Patrick Loehrer (Indiana University) and David Johnson (University of Texas) continue their conversation with two physician astronauts. Hear the incredible stories of Drs. Robert L. Satcher (MD Anderson), Ellen Baker (MD Anderson), and their lives on and off this planet. If you liked this episode, please subscribe. Learn more at education.asco.org, or email us at education@asco.org.   TRANSCRIPT David Johnson (Dave): I'm Dave Johnson at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. I'm here with Pat Loehrer, my good friend who also happens to be the Director of Global oncology and Health Equity at Indiana University. Welcome back to Oncology, Etc. And part two of our conversation with Dr. Ellen Baker and Dr. Robert Satcher. Dr. Baker and Satcher are former NASA astronauts now practicing in Indiana Cancer Center in Houston. In Episode One, we learned about their time at NASA and some of their spaceflight adventures. In this episode, we will learn more about their post-NASA activities. We will rejoin the conversation with Pat asking Dr. Baker, how her work in space informed what she does now. Patrick Loehrer (Pat): I know Ellen, you do work with Project ECHO, which is doing work globally. Tell us a little bit about that if you could. Ellen Baker: You know NASA seems a million lenses away now. I sort of vaguely remember my flights which were a long time ago, more than 25 years now, but seems like yesterday. But you learn a set of skills that are transferable, I think. You come into NASA with some skills that are transferable and you leave with those. We did a lot of work with international partners, particularly in the 90s with the Russians. And I now do a lot of work with international colleagues, particularly in Africa, Central, and South America. I think that's one of my transferable skills, perhaps from NASA. And I don't know, Bobby, it's thinking on your feet and being adaptable and not getting flustered and compartmentalizing, and quite honestly, a lot of those are skills I think you develop in medicine as well. So, there are a lot of similarities and I think a lot of benefits flow in both directions. Dave: Could you elaborate a little bit on Project ECHO that you're involved in? What sorts of things are you doing with Project Echo? Ellen Baker: Project ECHO is very simple, it's a video conference where you connect specialists generally at academic institutions with medical providers in rural and underserved communities where perhaps specialists are not available. And the intent is to meet on a regular basis and provide assistance and support and patient care. So, providers in isolated or rural communities or underserved communities can care for their patients locally and patients then don't have to be referred to a tertiary care center, often very far away at great cost, etc. It was designed by a gastroenterologist at The University of New Mexico, Sanjeev Arora, who started the ECHO program, it stands for “Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes. In New Mexico, it was at a university in Albuquerque, there were maybe 30,000 patients around New Mexico who had hepatitis C, and were not being treated except perhaps in his clinic. And he partnered with about 21 providers in the community around the state and gave them the support they needed to be able to provide care for patients with hepatitis C, locally. This was back when the treatment was quite toxic. A lot of primary care providers didn't feel comfortable delivering this sort of care. That was sort of the beginning of ECHO, and it's since been applied to many different disciplines. At MD Anderson, we have, I don't know, I think maybe 13 Different ECHO programs for cancer prevention. That would be cervical cancer prevention, tobacco treatment, melanoma detection, also for treatment, primarily with partners who are international. We worked a lot with partners in Mozambique for the treatment of chrono
Released:
Mar 22, 2022
Format:
Podcast episode

Titles in the series (100)

The ASCO Education Podcast features expert conversations on the most talked-about topics in oncology today from physician burnout, medical cannabis, COVID and cancer and more…