00:00:00:14 - 00:00:06:16 Dr. Winn I'm Dr. Rob Winn and you're listening to Real Cancer Talk from VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center. 00:00:07:12 - 00:00:16:03 Rudene Mercer Haynes For those of you who don't know me, I'm Rudene Mercer Haynes. I am one of the co-founders of Facts and Faith Fridays. 00:00:16:03 - 00:00:29:03 Rudene Mercer Haynes Today we have, this really exciting, exciting, conversations, talking with a physician and a medical student and about oncology here. Right. And how that all fits together. 00:00:29:06 - 00:00:52:22 Rev. Rachel Pierce All right. So today we're going to hear this Facts and Faith conversation a little differently than some of the other conversations that we've hosted before. We're going to learn from a female oncologist who is practicing, a medical student who is pursuing the work, and then the students from the SHE healthcare experience in oncology, who are investigating what it means to pursue a career in the medical field. 00:00:52:24 - 00:01:08:21 Rev. Rachel Pierce So with that, I'm going to turn it back to you Rudene. And, just wanted you all to know that today is a day of discussion interaction. Please post your comments and questions in the chat, or feel free to unmute yourself and to speak up because we want to hear from you today, especially. 00:01:08:21 - 00:01:20:02 Rudene Mercer Haynes Now we're really excited to sort of, learn from, a physician, an oncologist. Doctor Erica Phillips, we really appreciate your being here with us today. 00:01:20:04 - 00:01:42:14 Rudene Mercer Haynes You're a graduate of University of Virginia. If you if you squint, you can see the UVA diploma behind me. Go Who's, where she received a BA in psychology. She then returned home and attended Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons upon graduating with her MD in 1998, she went on to complete her primary care residency at the hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. 00:01:42:15 - 00:02:18:13 Rudene Mercer Haynes You only go to amazing schools, Doctor Phillips. Thereafter, she completed a master's in clinical epidemiology and health services research at the Weill Cornell New York Presbyterian, where she's been a member of the faculty for the last 22 years. She's a board certified general internist. Obesity Medicine Specialists. Say that five times fast. She leads a primary care based weight management program while also studying and developing behavioral interventions that leverage individual social ties in the weight loss journey. 00:02:18:15 - 00:02:36:01 Rudene Mercer Haynes Her resume is outstanding. You don't want hear any more from me. We want to hear from Doctor Phillips. I'll, go ahead and turn the floor over to you. So you can share your story about, you know, what sort of inspired you to become, a physician and tell us a little bit more about the work that you do. 00:02:36:03 - 00:02:38:19 Dr. Phillips Sure. Thank you so much for that introduction. 00:02:38:19 - 00:02:39:24 Dr. Phillips So I do want to correct one thing. 00:02:39:24 - 00:02:45:11 Dr. Phillips I am not an oncologist. I am the gatekeeper. I am a primary care physician by training. 00:02:45:11 - 00:02:53:12 Dr. Phillips I’m the gatekeeper and the person who's at the heart of ensuring that we that you we hopefully don't have to see an oncologist. 00:02:53:14 - 00:03:33:18 Dr. Phillips And so I, I sit in the cancer prevention room and not only clinically, but actually also from, a research, and leadership standpoint at my institution as, the associate director of Community Outreach and Engagement, where all of my work focuses on reaching communities at that early stage, whether it be from educating on, the reasons why, screening is important, the recognition that screening in of itself is, is not the only tool and it's not going to be the, is important, but not in and of itself sufficient to reduce death from cancer because access is so extraordinarily important. 00:03:33:20 - 00:04:08:22 Dr. Phillips To screen and not have access to high quality care. And you always have to put a plug in that care, sometimes coming in the form of clinical trials is really, really critical to making a difference in communities as it relates to the difference between, talking speak, being able to speak as a cancer survivor. Right. And so cancer survivors are survivors because they, were able to access, excellent care, in the treatment of their cancer, or, were able to find their cancer early and all of the above. 00:04:08:24 - 00:04:32:20 Dr. Phillips So how did I, sort of fall into medicine? Actually, it was it was one of those pillars in my life. Was my mother. My mother immigrated to this country from the Caribbean. Our family's from the Caribbean. And, before coming to the United States, she furthered her education and training and was a midwife in England before coming to the US. 00:04:32:22 - 00:04:48:04 Dr. Phillips And I still remember to this day, growing up where she said, there are a lot of things I'll pay for you to go to school to do. And I'm more than happy to, you know, foster you. And in all these great places that she, you know, was able to send me to, but I won't send you to school to be a nurse. 00:04:48:05 - 00:05:10:00 Dr. Phillips She's like, you're either going to go further than me. But you can't be the equivalent of me. And so I that was my charge from a, I think, a really young age. And that was a blessing in of itself in terms of that charge. And I've had. Yeah, I've, I've, I've really enjoyed all of the various institutions that I've been to, but the most important and the most fun one for me was definitely UVA. 00:05:10:00 - 00:05:34:24 Dr. Phillips So go who's, always going to say go who's. I am, a Virginia alum, die hard. I still remember coming down to Virginia, from New York and being like, wow, it's a different place. It took me a while to get used to being below the Mason-Dixon line. But I, I always go back, really thoroughly enjoy, our black alumni events. 00:05:35:01 - 00:05:57:08 Dr. Phillips And more importantly, just sort of actually enjoy the, just the breadth of the people that I met and continue to stay, in continued, contact with, as a, as a strong, sort of alumni association. But that being said, I did return home because home for me was always, the place where I wanted to serve my community. 00:05:57:10 - 00:06:20:18 Dr. Phillips But I very early on knew that I wanted to do that in a, from a standpoint that was larger than just the individual doctor patient relationship. So even when I was in medical school, research, public health was always at the forefront of my mind. I contemplated at that time, Columbia is known for having multiple MD dual degrees. 00:06:20:18 - 00:06:39:22 Dr. Phillips So you can go to Columbia and do MDMBA and DJD, MDMPH. And so I contemplated doing that at that time and recognized what I first needed to be was a really good doctor and understand what type of medicine I wanted to do. And then, got all the training I needed to be able to take it to that next level. 00:06:39:22 - 00:07:03:19 Dr. Phillips And that's what, I was able to do after finishing residency at the University of Pennsylvania, which again, the, best place to practice medicine from the standpoint of, the Philadelphia VA is a wonderful place to have in your back pocket. I think there is a, the aspect of working in a VA, it's like nothing else, I swear. 00:07:03:19 - 00:07:25:04 Dr. Phillips It's it's, I think we used to joke there, and it's like, you know, it's it's a it's a third world as it relates to the type of pathology that you encounter. But it's also, a wonderful place to give back in terms of serving those who serve your country. Well, what other place could you, find individuals like that who literally are putting their life on the line every day to serve their country? 00:07:25:04 - 00:07:50:22 Dr. Phillips And so I think being there and being in that space was a wonderful experience, in understanding, what that means to really be in a, a field of service. Returned back to New York and have been here since. I really enjoy wearing multiple hats. And I think one of the things that we don't talk about a lot in medicine is the various different hats that you can wear in the field. 00:07:50:24 - 00:08:10:21 Dr. Phillips In that there are so many physicians who are not just taking care of patients, but are, you know, first and foremost, a clinician. They can be a clinician investigator in terms of being embedded in research. You can be a clinician educator in terms of embedded in the training of the next generation of whether it be physicians or researchers. 00:08:10:23 - 00:08:31:14 Dr. Phillips You can be a clinician administrator in terms of what it means to run health care systems, which is a whole other field in and of itself. And so, you know, I think one of the things I always like to talk to young people about who are interested in medicine as a field is recognizing how large that field is and how many different hats you can wear. 00:08:31:16 - 00:08:58:01 Dr. Phillips And sometimes you can wear many of those hats over the course of your career. And so you're never actually, doing the same thing sometimes at the, consistently over the course. And I always like to say I kind of recreate myself every five years, in terms of finding a new hat to wear. So that's sort of, you know, how I've evolved in terms of the leadership role that I play at our institution, in our cancer center. 00:08:58:03 - 00:09:23:00 Dr. Phillips That, again, wasn't something that was at the foresight or that I even knew that I would end up doing, but, you know, being a person of faith, we are, we are given challenges in life and faced with things that we don't recognize at the time they're meaning, but they definitely have a meaning because nothing is by everything is, is, was already seen and put in our path. 00:09:23:02 - 00:09:46:12 Dr. Phillips About 12, ten years ago, my mother unfortunately passed away from ovarian cancer. And I didn't recognize it at that time what that message was. But I know what that message was, what that message is now. And so I think that was my, aha moment as related to looking at cancer prevention and early detection and understanding, 00:09:46:14 - 00:10:11:09 Dr. Phillips that, that this sort of big C, the big C that existed before Covid and the big C that's going to continue after Covid, is actually, a much larger C than we recognize, but doesn't need to be, and that's how that actually, again, you know, so Ruth, Esther, Mary, all of those. Well, my, my my Ruth, my Esther, my Mary, is named Joan. 00:10:11:09 - 00:10:22:11 Dr. Phillips That was my mother's name. And so Joan really sort of, I think, guided me on this path, without me knowing it, at that time, but definitely is at the heart of, some of the work that I do now. 00:10:22:11 - 00:10:34:22 Dr. Phillips I, didn't know other directions that you wanted me to take this, and so definitely don't mind pausing to sort of say, thoughts and questions that might prompt further, aspects of the discussion. 00:10:35:00 - 00:11:07:09 Dr. Winn Yeah. Can I ask a quick question? So, you talked about being literally on the front lines as a primary care doc. In your everyday sort of practice, how do you, how has your, ideas of cancer changed? Because typically, you know, I formerly ran a, a large federally qualified health center, and we knew about diabetes, hypertension, but we rarely actually did the things in and around cancer screening because it seems like, 00:11:07:09 - 00:11:14:07 Dr. Winn Oh, yeah. Yeah, people get that. How has your practice changed given your experiences? 00:11:14:09 - 00:11:39:05 Dr. Phillips I don't think my practices have changed, per se. And I think if anything, one of the things what I, the part of the story I didn't share and that I think is synergistic with the cancer aspects as relates to screening, is really stepping back and really talking about prevention and what I, think that we do a great job at when it comes to training physicians is that we train physicians to take care of pathology. 00:11:39:05 - 00:12:01:21 Dr. Phillips We don't train physicians to help prevent disease. It's a huge, huge, huge. And I love how many times I can say that a deficit. And I think in our medical education, and so much so that so sorry to I think it was our point, part of the story I didn't tell. So for about ten years, let's say, let me think where I came to Cornell in 2001. 00:12:01:21 - 00:12:22:07 Dr. Phillips I did the, master's finish that in 2003. In between 2003 and 2010, I sort of just practice bread and butter medicine in a small capacity because research was always my pathway from the beginning. So I had a number of smaller grants coming out of my fellowship that helped protect my time. But at that time it wasn't fully protecting it. 00:12:22:07 - 00:12:45:08 Dr. Phillips So, for students who are on the line, you know, when you stay in academic medicine, your your time is paid for. And how that time is paid for really sometimes determines what you do. So part of my time was paid to see patients. And the other part of my time was, paid to do research. But the time paid to do research was less than the time paid to do, to see patients. 00:12:45:08 - 00:13:14:12 Dr. Phillips And so I was really seeking patients more than, than the research aspect. And about seven years or so down the line. And I was working in, one of our clinical practices that is, in a neighborhood that actually it eventually became a federally qualified health care center. I stopped and said, I am so tired of prescribing medications to treat medical problems rather than being at the heart of really helping people not have to have them in the first place. 00:13:14:18 - 00:13:38:02 Dr. Phillips Or at least sometimes we can't. Not everything. You can't always blame individuals. It's a situation, obviously, that we live in that give risk, that provide these risk factors. That I wanted to do more as a related to the prevention side. And when I think about cancer, cancer is about prevention and, and a lot of it is is crossed over and shared risks between cancer and heart disease. 00:13:38:02 - 00:14:05:00 Dr. Phillips Azure relates to what are the same things that put people at risk for heart disease? Smoking, number one, unhealthy diet, number two, lack of physical activity, number three. Those those three things alone. If we could improve that, reduce people's chance, chance of cancer almost equally as it does heart disease. Right. And so I actually that was why I actually stopped in a way practicing and went back to school. 00:14:05:02 - 00:14:24:11 Dr. Phillips And so I went back to school and got training as it related to nutrition and lifestyles, lifestyle interventions and lifestyle behaviors and learned how to really do that, counseling, and that's how I started a weight management practice within the context of our primary care practice, because I first and foremost was like, I can't just keep treating disease. 00:14:24:16 - 00:15:05:11 Dr. Phillips This makes no sense. And recognize that the heart of it was really how do you meet people where they are and really begin to, intervene on lifestyles? And so I will say that I think since then there definitely is more conversation. And we've seen, you know, not just the number of people, who, become board certified obesity medicine, but we've seen also the increase in the rise in terms of board certification as it relates to, integrative and lifestyle sort of, of programs that, we really do need to changed medical education first and foremost. 00:15:05:11 - 00:15:40:24 Dr. Phillips I think at the heart of it. And so I do think that AI is evolving, but I don't think we're there yet at all. I think there's still a lot of room for growth as it relates to really embedding, prevention first and foremost in medical education from the very beginning so that we can break the cycle of having to always breed specialists who are taking care of cancer, rather than breeding a larger group of specialists who are there to help with, taking us down a path of, of lifestyle interventions and changes that help people not have to address that in the first place. 00:15:41:01 - 00:15:53:24 Dr. Phillips And I don't say not address. You're always going to have to do screening, but that we're seeing that a lot earlier on. I do think that the in the setting of primary care. 00:15:54:01 - 00:16:16:17 Dr. Phillips One of the conundrums is also the constant change of of guidelines. I think the most recent changes in mammogram screening, confuses things even more. You know, this is where primary care doctors spend a lot of time trying to explain to patients, what should we be starting at what age shouldn't we start at? Well, what what age are you? 00:16:16:17 - 00:16:40:21 Dr. Phillips Where does where do all these things come in? We have very confusing messages. Confusing for providers, and if it's confusing providers, even more confusing for the individual. And I think that's where, if anything, where we're beginning to see what I do definitely think has changed is, for as a primary care provider, really having discussions about these are guidelines based on this general population. 00:16:40:23 - 00:17:02:15 Dr. Phillips And if you don't fall into that general population, we really need to talk about what what are the guidelines, what are the things that we need to do for you? I do think that that is at the bread and butter of primary care physicians, as it relates to how do you take all of this information and really tailor it to the individual who's in front of you, and how and have how does it relate to them? 00:17:02:15 - 00:17:24:16 Dr. Phillips And that's a challenge. It's a challenge because our health care system doesn't afford the time that's necessary to do that. You especially in a place like New York, we serve as a population that is diverse and God knows how many different ways, as it relates the number of languages spoken in in any particular health care system here is, is enormous. 00:17:24:18 - 00:17:48:17 Dr. Phillips You know, I have colleagues who in our campus, which is right across the water in Queens, you are every patient, speaks a different language, because of our large, diaspora of, of Asian countries that are represented in Queens. And so how do you, as a primary care provider, one get over language barriers to get over cultural barriers, 00:17:48:22 - 00:18:15:09 Dr. Phillips three get over insurance barriers, four get over the fact that we recognize that most of the guidelines regarding cancer screening are set for or were set in the U.S based on US population and access? And these are foreign concepts to most people who immigrate to this country. In the sense of, most third world countries are not talking about colonoscopies in every adult at the age of 50. 00:18:15:11 - 00:18:35:17 Dr. Phillips And so people don't actually have that in their mindset that, you know, the exposure, the knowledge that, okay, everyone in my family needs to be having a colonoscopy starting at the age of 50 because I don't know what that looks like. And so these are really foreign concepts when you're talking about immigrant populations. And it's not to say that they would not undergo those screenings. 00:18:35:22 - 00:18:57:19 Dr. Phillips It's more so they would have never had exposure, to those screenings. And half of what we do and know is, is, you know, through our connections, through family members and friends and, and our social networks. And so if that's not something that's happening in your social network and you grew up in and you're coming here as an adult, why would that be natural to now say, oh, yeah, I know what that is. 00:18:57:21 - 00:19:20:07 Dr. Phillips Oh yeah, I'm going to go that, you know, to that have that machine squeeze my breast. That makes sense to me. And my mom told me about that. Right. You know, those those things are foreign. So I think as a primary care provider, those aren't really those are significant challenges, but not ones that, are not insurmountable, that are not insurmountable and can be overcome. 00:19:20:09 - 00:19:37:01 Dr. Phillips But what it really takes us time and at time is, as we move along in our health care systems, every visit gets smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller in time. And to be able to be able to address all those things in the time that we're given is, is a challenge. 00:19:37:03 - 00:20:07:22 Rudene Mercer Haynes Doctor Phillips, I have like, a thousand questions for you, but I, also have to ask one right now. So, I really appreciate your talking about sort of the diversity of folks that you've had the opportunity to treat over the years. But something we talk about a lot in this forum is how there is this element of mistrust, distrust, all the different, like opposites of trust that people have when it comes to dealing with doctors and, and science and, and all the things. 00:20:07:22 - 00:20:29:22 Rudene Mercer Haynes I would love for you to give me your sort of perspective in the populations that you see. Like how much do you spend just trying to kind of convince folks that, you know what this is being done for your best interests is being suggested for your best interests, cause there's this healthy level of skepticism and things of color when it comes to, you know, the medical field. 00:20:29:24 - 00:20:53:20 Dr. Phillips Without a doubt. I do think there's a there's a healthy level of skepticism. But I think as a provider, you can't enter the relationship with the expectation that every person of color in front of you is coming to their relationship with mistrust. And I think that's, something that people are so heightened to right now that they enter into the relationship never listening first to even understand if it's even there. 00:20:53:22 - 00:21:20:03 Dr. Phillips And I would say again, and I think New York is, is it's a different breed that that very thing that you're talking about is embedded in US medicine, but not necessarily at the forefront of many of the patients that I see who are coming, whose experience is not with a US medical based system. And so there's a different level of interaction. 00:21:20:03 - 00:21:53:08 Dr. Phillips And ironically, when I think about it, and again, I'll, I'll use, my, my parents home countries of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados, where, this mistrust of the health care system is not deeply embedded in their health care systems in the same way. And so to then enter into a relationship with an adult, let's say, from the Caribbean, who immigrates here, who is not coming with that? 00:21:53:10 - 00:21:56:02 Dr. Phillips I'll call it baggage for right now, for lack of a better term. 00:21:56:02 - 00:21:57:24 Rudene Mercer Haynes I was thinking baggage, but I didn't wanna throw that out. 00:21:58:04 - 00:22:24:15 Dr. Phillips Yeah, it just it's just sort of the thing because that's what it's sort of because I think that's how we sometimes, get ourselves, going down the wrong path and that it's still requires listening, and recognizing that everyone is bringing something different to the table. And that sometimes that's that when we approach it with that, every single person, potential is coming into it with mistrust. 00:22:24:16 - 00:22:46:24 Dr. Phillips It takes us down the wrong path 100%. And so, I think for me, I just, I it's the first and foremost part is to sit, to be still and to listen. And, and that is, that is the part that I think all, patients, regardless of race, creed or color want is they want to be heard. 00:22:47:05 - 00:23:04:02 Dr. Phillips And where we get ourselves into trouble is because we don't allow people to be heard. We’re speaking before we allow them to be heard. And I think when you really just spend time listening, you, you, you are able to find that that common space regardless. 00:23:04:04 - 00:23:08:22 Rudene Mercer Haynes Awesome. I see that Lisa has your hand raised. You have a question? 00:23:08:24 - 00:23:15:08 Lisa Overton I do have a question. And thank you, Doctor Phillips, for this very inviting conversation and your listening. 00:23:16:19 - 00:23:17:09 Lisa Overton You've brought up two points. 00:23:20:02 - 00:23:24:01 Lisa Overton The time that you don't have in order to see and 00:23:25:10 - 00:23:33:15 Lisa Overton that individuals want to be heard or listened to. So without that time and they want to be heard, what about.. 00:23:34:01 - 00:23:35:12 Lisa Overton How do you address that? 00:23:36:11 - 00:23:46:11 Lisa Overton And how does your practice address that, knowing that you're trying to prevent, you know, help people with preventable, preventing disease? 00:23:46:13 - 00:23:54:03 Lisa Overton What is your what's the plan that your, center provides to do that outside of, 00:23:54:05 - 00:23:59:21 Lisa Overton you know, the one on one or their programs you've established and set up to do that to meet those needs? 00:23:59:21 - 00:24:11:22 Dr. Phillips Yeah. So I will say personally and again, it took me, you know, 20 something years to be able to do that. Right. So there's growth in that. You get to be able to really create, what you need and what you feel, 00:24:11:22 - 00:24:33:19 Dr. Phillips the individuals who are taking care of need. The program that I created, at least our weight management program, individuals who come to that program, their first initial visit is actually a 45 minute visit just off the bat. And I say most of them walk away. It actually gets to the point, 45 minutes with me, then there's another 20 minutes with the dietitian. 00:24:33:19 - 00:24:54:21 Dr. Phillips So there's actually almost an hour and a half that they spend in their practice. I would say that most of them walk away saying, oh my God, no one told me that I needed to carve out two hours to be here. Like, they literally are looking at their watch like, how much more longer is this going to be sometimes, from the standpoint of that's what it is to hear someone’s story, 00:24:54:23 - 00:25:21:16 Dr. Phillips if they're coming to you for help. I recognize that's not, something that happens across the board, and it's not something that's always feasible and possible. But that was that was a space I needed to create for myself to do the work. And so it it really meant me saying, figuring out how to do that and how to negotiate that into a larger medical setting where I said, this is what I need, this is what I want to do. 00:25:21:16 - 00:25:52:17 Dr. Phillips I'm going to show you on the back end, how the effect that it's going to have, you know, in terms of data demonstrating the impact on patients, feedback from patients, their reviews on the program and the practice, that's just me personally. I recognize that's not necessarily, practical in every health care setting, but I think it's just an example of there are ways of doing this depending on what we need to do to really begin to, allow patients to be heard. 00:25:52:19 - 00:26:12:02 Dr. Phillips And I do think there are many people who figure out other ways of doing that in a sense of, you know, there's the end face visit time, but there's a lot of communication that can happen outside of the actual visit time. The one it's where to say positive thing that came out of Covid, but in a way, it was a positive thing. 00:26:12:02 - 00:26:38:07 Dr. Phillips I can say professionally, prior to Covid, I did not, do a video visits and use and and maximize my use of the electronic health record from the perspective of communicating through to patients via the electronic health record. And that was because my patients didn't, I had the misconception that my patients weren't ready. Many of them had, but I've seen them from again since coming here. 00:26:38:09 - 00:27:02:12 Dr. Phillips In 2001, Covid forced us and forced patients, quite frankly, to have to propel into a different way of practicing, inclusive of video visits, which are really a convenient way of seeing people more often, in the sense of I don't have to inconvenience someone, to come into an office visit to be able to communicate with them. 00:27:02:14 - 00:27:27:05 Dr. Phillips And it propelled even my oldest of patients, 85 year olds, who are readily messaging me through the electronic record via chat whenever they have a question. And I can easily answer their question that way. And so the the being heard doesn't have to always necessarily be a face to face being heard. It's about just ongoing, more communication. 00:27:27:05 - 00:27:51:01 Dr. Phillips I think overall as well, and being able to listen to people in many different ways. And I think that's one thing that has changed for primary care in particular, is utilization of channels that we just weren't using, enough of prior to the pandemic. Which I think has really changed how we practice medicine now in this post-pandemic era. 00:27:51:03 - 00:28:14:20 Rudene Mercer Haynes One question. I'm sorry. Oh no worries, no worries. So, Doctor Phillips, we would love to have you come back. Doctor Phillips, I know Lisa is going to direct message you in a minute with her second question. And I would love to be sort of a fly on the wall there. We just have to sort of keep it moving because we'd like to get them give the medical student opportunity to tell us, tell us about her experiences. 00:28:14:20 - 00:28:37:24 Rudene Mercer Haynes But, Doctor Phillips, please, please, please agree to come back to see us because, what you're doing and how you're doing it is is revolutionizing, medicine. So with that, we're going to quickly, and turn over, the program to Comfort. Comfort, I could read your your wonderful bio. I might start at the beginning, and then you can sort of fill in the blanks for the rest of us. 00:28:37:24 - 00:28:47:20 Rudene Mercer Haynes I think they're more interested in hearing from you than hearing me speak about your accomplishments. But Comfort is a second year student medical student at VCU 00:28:47:20 - 00:28:52:03 Rudene Mercer Haynes She graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, with a B.S. in psychology. 00:28:52:03 - 00:29:11:03 Rudene Mercer Haynes She and Doctor Phillips have some things in common, and it seems, she's volunteered in many different organizations, including inroads. She's had wonderful experiences that I'm short drifting right now just so she can start talking and I can stop talking. So Comfort I'm turn it over to you. 00:29:11:05 - 00:29:28:12 Comfort Aluko Thank you so much. All right. Thank you all for having me today. It's so great to be here. Thank you, Doctor Phillips, for sharing your story. And a lot of the things that you talked about. I will kind of be reiterating, I think it just worked out best that way. 00:29:28:14 - 00:29:50:23 Comfort Aluko So a little bit about me. I am a Maryland native. I born and raised in Maryland, went to University of Maryland, College Park, go Terps, and I got my degree in psychology. But I'm going to take you back just a little bit before then. So I my path was pretty straightforward. I was a young girl who like to take care of her brothers. 00:29:50:23 - 00:30:08:19 Comfort Aluko I'm the oldest of six kids. So if someone had a cut. Oh, Comfort. What do you do? What do I do? Or if someone's coughing or Comfort, what do I do? And on top of that, my father was a physician when he was in Nigeria. So a lot of these things influenced me in the terms of what I wanted to do with my career. 00:30:09:00 - 00:30:31:22 Comfort Aluko So whenever someone asked, what do you want to be when you grow up, doctor was the obvious answer. And so I went throughout my life knowing that I wanted to be a doctor, and that's what I did. And my path was pretty straightforward. I'm going to go ahead and share my screen. Okay. Perfect. Can everyone see my screen now? 00:30:31:24 - 00:30:33:04 Rudene Mercer Haynes Yes we can. 00:30:33:04 - 00:30:58:06 Comfort Aluko Awesome. Wonderful. So, yeah, my path is pretty straightforward. That's me. Young me. I'm a little, left hand side. And I went through my path pretty straightforward. In high school, I had the opportunity to do some research, which piqued my interest in just research in general. I didn't know how that would play a role in my life, but I was interested, so I continued pursuing that. 00:30:58:08 - 00:31:24:12 Comfort Aluko And from that research, I was able to go to an, international conference that was hosted in Pittsburgh, where high school students from all over the world came and shared their research experience. And it was so eye opening for me, but everything was pretty straightforward. No bumps in the road, and it was great. And so I got to undergrad and right as I was transitioning, I got an interest in psychology and I said, this would be great to do. 00:31:24:18 - 00:31:44:02 Comfort Aluko I always knew I want to go into medicine. I knew I was going to be pre-med, but I was like, why not explore psychology, see what, see what it's about and see how it might fit in my future. So I did all the things for pre-med leadership's engaging workshops. They were the suture workshop, either my first or second year that I engaged, and it was amazing. 00:31:44:04 - 00:32:12:22 Comfort Aluko But I also had various experiences in the psychology field that could play to going into clinical psychology or counseling psychology. And it was great until it wasn't because I knew what I wanted to do, and I was just exploring, just seeing what psychology was about. But it became a little too interesting for me. And then I started to doubt whether medicine was the right path for me. 00:32:12:24 - 00:32:34:23 Comfort Aluko So I was chugging along and everything was fine until I was faced with this fork in the road. Where do I continue premed and go medicine, or do I do clinical psychology? And it was really distressing for me, really, because I'm the type of person that when I make a plan, I go for it and nothing could stand in my way. 00:32:34:23 - 00:33:02:08 Comfort Aluko I'm just going to go for it. But here I was, and thankfully I had a mentor in University of Maryland who was a clinical psychology, psychologist by training, but she was heading the Department of Psychology for the undergrads at that time. And she asked me two questions that changed my life and my perspective. The first question she asked me was, what do you want your impact to be? 00:33:02:10 - 00:33:24:12 Comfort Aluko And the second question she asked was, which path will allow you to have that impact? No one had ever asked me that before. It's always, what do you want to be right? But not why do you want to be that? And that's an important question to ask yourself. And so my answers to those questions guided me. These first four answers are kind of generic. 00:33:24:15 - 00:33:49:04 Comfort Aluko You know, I want to help others. I like medicine, I like psychology, and then I also want to help those who had been historically undertreated and underserved. But there were some more answers that I was able to find that drove me into a specific path. And the first one was, I wanted to empower patients to live healthier lives by arming them with knowledge. 00:33:49:06 - 00:34:13:10 Comfort Aluko And some of my experiences later on showed me that that is a very important thing to do to give patients the knowledge to like, Doctor Phillips said, just prevents the progression of some of these diseases that are very preventable with lifestyle changes. Another answer that guided me was I wanted to be in a position to help those who may not realize they needed the help. 00:34:13:12 - 00:34:43:07 Comfort Aluko And that's where my interest in medicine and psychology emerged, because. So I was born in America. But, my home country, if you will, is Nigeria. And the culture there is that we don't really talk about mental health. And it's something that's kind of swept under the rug. But I realized and I noticed through my interactions that having conversations in a way that people are able to digest information makes them more open to discussing things that they wouldn't have in the first place. 00:34:43:09 - 00:35:13:15 Comfort Aluko And so those two answers, the last two answers showed me or and made me realize that pursuing the path of medicine would put me in a position where I would be able to impact the population that I want to impact and do it on a greater scale. And so this is how I found that disruption can bring about important questions that you might have asked yourself before or no one asked you. 00:35:13:17 - 00:35:30:21 Comfort Aluko Have you considered other paths? What's your mission? What's your purpose? And there's two questions that my mentor asked me earlier kind of played into my mission and my purpose. And those are questions that medical schools will ask you when you apply. What is your mission? And that's the story that you have to tell in your personal statement. 00:35:30:21 - 00:35:54:10 Comfort Aluko That's something that you have to know and it should come from you. It should be personal. It cannot be generic. People can tell if you're just giving a cookie cutter answer, right? How are you going to get there? That's also very important. What do you want to do and what will your impact be? And that question was what helped me pursue the path of medicine. 00:35:54:12 - 00:36:20:17 Comfort Aluko And I know that somewhere along the way, all the experiences that I've obtained through being a major in psychology and all the other experience that I at that I had, I know that they will play a role in my impact in the future. And so I didn't. It wasn't a time wasted. In fact, a lot of the experiences that I got from that time has informed what kind of physician I want to be, hopefully in the future. 00:36:20:19 - 00:36:34:22 Comfort Aluko And I think it's an it's okay if there are some disruptions in your life because you never know what kind of questions will come out of that time and how that will shape your future. Thank you. 00:36:34:24 - 00:36:51:11 Rudene Mercer Haynes Comfort, I just have to say this. You need to share these slides. Because no matter what profession or profession you think you want to be in, we all need to be asking ourselves all these questions. Phenomenal, phenomenal. Thank you. Running short of time. But, 00:36:51:13 - 00:36:52:04 Dr. Winn I was wondering. 00:36:52:04 - 00:36:52:12 Rudene Mercer Haynes And so just. 00:36:52:14 - 00:36:58:23 Dr. Winn Sister Rudene, I was asking. Yeah, I was asking Comfort, what program are you a part of? 00:36:59:00 - 00:37:14:22 Comfort Aluko Just, I just so happen to be a part of the Winn CIPP Scholar program, which actually just ended last week, Friday. It was an incredible, incredible time. Last weekend, I was just in Chicago. It was incredible. 00:37:14:24 - 00:37:18:16 Rudene Mercer Haynes Winn who? Not just kidding. 00:37:18:18 - 00:37:19:15 Comfort Aluko Keep it humble. 00:37:19:15 - 00:37:23:15 Rudene Mercer Haynes That's awesome. Congratulations, Comfort. Thank you. 00:37:23:15 - 00:37:26:10 Rudene Mercer Haynes With that, I think we're. Caroline's going to take over. 00:37:26:15 - 00:37:44:08 Caroline Blair Hello. Yeah. So Comfort was one of the four Winn CIPP students that we had here at Massey Cancer Center for six weeks, and she is amazing, a genius. All of them are geniuses. So. Hi. My name is Caroline Blair, and I'm the CRTEC coordinator here at Massey Cancer Center. And today we will be talking I'm going to share my screen first. 00:37:44:08 - 00:37:51:01 Caroline Blair I think that would be good. Okay. 00:37:51:03 - 00:37:59:23 Caroline Blair Can you all see that? 00:38:00:00 - 00:38:00:20 Rudene Mercer Haynes We can. 00:38:00:22 - 00:38:21:16 Caroline Blair Okay. Perfect. So today we're going to be giving a brief introduction about the ACS Summer Health Experience. SHE in oncology. So this program is for rising high school juniors and seniors who identify as female. And basically they get an intro to cancer biology and a wide range of career opportunities in cancer research, clinical care and patient support. So this is a two week virtual program. 00:38:21:16 - 00:38:41:02 Caroline Blair It actually just ended today. So this program was founded in 2021 by ACS. And I'll be sharing these slides after with you all with a brief introduction of all the programs at the search back office, which is the office that I'm, the coordinator for, we were at about 5 to 6 programs currently. So after that I'll share the slides with you guys. 00:38:41:02 - 00:39:00:01 Caroline Blair But this program just ended. So five cancer sites are part of this cohort. But we wanted to give a brief test. But one of our students is here today to give a brief testimonial about what the program was like for her. So Joanna would you like to turn on your mic and answer a couple of questions for us? 00:39:00:03 - 00:39:01:14 Joanna Johnson Yes, I'd love to. 00:39:01:16 - 00:39:14:12 Caroline Blair Yeah. So if you could. So she was one of our current students in the cohort. So you could tell us your name, your school and your, your year. 00:39:14:14 - 00:39:22:07 Joanna Johnson Okay. Hi, everyone. My name is Johanna Johnson. I'm 17 years old, and I'm a rising senior at DePaul High School. 00:39:22:09 - 00:39:25:05 Caroline Blair Thank you. So what was your favorite experience 00:39:25:05 - 00:39:29:08 Caroline Blair with SHE and what why was that your favorite experience? 00:39:29:10 - 00:39:47:00 Joanna Johnson Ok, my favorite experience of the ACS program was getting to meet new people. I got to hear from a variety of, professionals, mentors and other individuals from different areas of the medical field. I loved hearing about their work and the journey they took to get where they are today. 00:39:47:02 - 00:40:03:05 Caroline Blair Thank you. So we have a couple others ACS SHE students in the crowd as well. So I just wanted to shout them out. But I also had one last question for you. What do you want to be when you grow up? That's just the Or and what impact you want to have after Comfort’s speech. And I think that's a better question if you're okay with pivoting. 00:40:03:05 - 00:40:07:04 Caroline Blair I know we had a couple questions. What impact do you want to have? 00:40:07:06 - 00:40:29:09 Joanna Johnson So I think the biggest impact I want to maybe like help the less fortunate in other countries like, who are struggling with their health. So I think that be kind of cool. They maybe like to travel, to less fortunate countries and help with their medical health and programs and facilities. 00:40:29:11 - 00:40:47:16 Caroline Blair So, so, Joanna, thank you so much for talking today. Does anybody have any questions for Joanna while we're here? We have a couple other students in the crowd. Just about ACS SHE. I have a couple other slides, but just about the program in general. It was a great experience. I did, a lab portion the first week by the Institute. 00:40:47:17 - 00:41:00:20 Caroline Blair Then the second week was very career and didactic oriented. Each day had a specific theme run by a specific cancer site. So and then they did case study presentations today. So any questions? 00:41:00:22 - 00:41:22:02 Rudene Mercer Haynes So thank you, Caroline and Joanna. I think it's really important that people know that there are all of these sort of training and, you know, internship opportunities at Massey. So I don't know if it makes sense to send the link. But again, you want do you want to describe quickly all the different parts? 00:41:22:04 - 00:41:55:05 Caroline Blair Okay. Yeah of course. So we have currently our two high school programs are the CHiSEL program and then ACS SHE. So ACS SHE is two weeks long. It's a two week virtual online program. And CHiSEL is we have currently 20 students here on site at Massey from the Richmond area. They're doing a five week long, bench work research program and they're paired with a mentor, then our undergrad and then of all of our onsite programs at the end of the summer are doing a poster symposium, so they'll present all their research findings at the end of the summer. 00:41:55:07 - 00:42:22:08 Caroline Blair So they'll do the poster presentation. And undergrad wise, we have the CTO internship run by the CTO, the clinical trials office, which I'm not directly involved with, but I've met some of the students and someone from the CTO of you have any questions, I could guide you their way to talk more about. We also have the VCU SUCCEED Crep program, undergrad and postdoc level, where we have 4 to 6 students doing mentor work as well for, I believe, eight weeks. 00:42:22:10 - 00:42:50:04 Caroline Blair ACS CURE is an undergrad program focused on diversify the field of STEM. And we have four current undergrad students from VCU and one from William and Mary. The ten week long research internship where they're paired with a mentor. And we have two didactic. So we career and research, didactic y seminars. We also have the Winn CIPP program, which is in honor of Doctor Robert Winn. 00:42:50:04 - 00:43:22:13 Caroline Blair And that's a clinical research six week long internship. And it's national, that's one of our graduate programs. We also have the James E. Popp M1 fellowship, which is a bench work a minimum of eight weeks. Sorry, eight week long program where they're paired with a mentor and they get to do research. We also have currently pending we're waiting for the notice of seeing if we if we get this, we have the ACS Post-Bacc one year program that students can apply for. 00:43:22:14 - 00:43:41:02 Caroline Blair We're waiting for if see if we get it. One year Post-Bacc after they graduate, they can apply for this. But yeah. No, we have we have a good amount going on right now and a couple other programs, but that's kind of what has been going on. Anita, do you have anything to add? 00:43:41:04 - 00:44:05:12 Anita Harrison Oh, sorry. No, I did note that someone, asked in the chat. The SHE program is virtual, and the students, can come from anywhere in Virginia since it is a virtual program. Yeah. And and then our other undergraduate programs, as you saw, we have, eight, approximately eight students, Virginia State University down in the Petersburg area. 00:44:05:14 - 00:44:28:16 Comfort Aluko But, our undergraduate program is open to anyone nationally. These are paid stipend summer programs. So, you know, these these kids are receiving, approximately 5 to $6000 for the summer to do this. And that can help cover their housing expenses. If they need to be here, in the Richmond area and the, the Winn clinical investigator pathway program, 00:44:29:02 - 00:44:49:22 Anita Harrison which we refer to as Winn CIPP, that is a national program. And this summer you heard from Comfort, but we also had two students, one from Tennessee and one from, Brown University up north. So, yeah. So students can come from afar to train right here at the Massey Cancer Center. 00:44:49:24 - 00:45:08:07 Rudene Mercer Haynes And I'm sure you know this, but I think a number of these internship programs have inspired people to actually pursue, you know, you know, advanced degrees and interest in clinical trials and research in oncology. So it really does kind of light the fire. And folks, and I think we just do a better job of spreading the word. 00:45:08:11 - 00:45:17:24 Caroline Blair Yeah. Thank you everyone. And we we really appreciate your having us here today. I appreciate you having. Yeah. Thank you. So so thank