Newswise — Atlanta, September 24, 2013 – The American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) has elected four new officers to serve on its Board of Directors. The new officers’ terms for 2013-14 will begin at the Annual Business Meeting on Tuesday, September 24, 2013, at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, at ASTRO’s 55th Annual Meeting in Atlanta, September 22-25, 2013.
The new Board of Directors members are:President-electBruce D. Minsky, MD, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston
Secretary/Treasurer-ElectJeff M. Michalski, MD, MBA, FASTRO, Washington University School of Medicine, Siteman Cancer Center, St. Louis
Health Policy Council Vice-chairman Thomas J. Eichler, MD, Thomas Johns Cancer Hospital, CJW Medical Center, Richmond, Va.
Science Council Vice-chairmanTheodore L. DeWeese, MD, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore
“These four individuals bring a wealth of leadership experience from both within and outside of ASTRO that will provide us with valuable knowledge and skills,” said Michael L. Steinberg, MD, FASTRO, chairman of ASTRO’s Board of Directors. “As ASTRO continues to navigate the rapidly changing health care landscape, their wide-ranging expertise in areas such as clinical research, health policy, quality and best practices are excellent foundations for them to advance both ASTRO and our specialty of radiation oncology.”
Dr. Minsky is the deputy division head and professor of the Division of Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. He is an active clinician and clinical research investigator on MD Anderson Cancer Center’s gastrointestinal cancer multidisciplinary team. He served ASTRO as a member of the Board of Directors (2003 to 2006) as the chairman of the Education Council; as a member of the Ethics Committee, Gold Medal Awards Committee and Quality Steering Committee; and as a member of the Editor Selection Task Force for the International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics (Red Journal), ASTRO’s official scientific journal. Dr. Minsky spent the first 20 years of his career at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, where he served as vice-chairman of radiation oncology from 2000 to 2007. During his tenure, he contributed to the clinical management of esophageal and rectal cancer and served on the gastrointestinal cancer multidisciplinary team. In 2007, he became a professor of radiation and cellular oncology and associate dean in the Biological Sciences Division at the University of Chicago in Chicago. In the role of chief quality officer for the University of Chicago Hospitals (2007 to 2012), Dr. Minsky created a metric-based, faculty-driven, clinical quality program to meet the challenges of the new pay-for-performance reimbursement system.
Dr. Minsky earned his medical degree in 1982 from the University of Massachusetts in Worcester, Mass., and completed his residency in radiation therapy at the Harvard Joint Center for Radiation Therapy in 1986. He was awarded an honorary medical degree from Friedrich Alexander University in Erlangen, Germany, in 2004 for his work in the development of neoadjuvant therapy for rectal cancer.
Dr. Michalski is the Carlos Perez Distinguished Professor and vice-chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. He is the medical director of Siteman Cancer Center’s Clinical Trials Core, which provides support for the center’s clinical research activities including protocol development, regulatory submissions, study coordination and data management. His research interests include radiation dose escalation in the management of prostate cancer; conformal therapy to reduce toxicity in late neuro-cognitive effects in children with medulloblastoma; and assessment of quality of life in survivors of adult and childhood malignancies.
Dr. Michalski has served ASTRO as a member of the Clinical Affairs and Quality Committee, co-chairman of the Best Practices Subcommittee, member of the Joint ASTRO/AUA Adjuvant Prostate Cancer Guideline Panel, member of the Prostate and Genitourinary Cancer Resource Panel and member of the Emerging Technology Committee, as well as a member of the Red Journal’s Editor Selection Task Force. Dr. Michalski is the vice-chairman of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), leads RTOG’s Advanced Technology Integration Committee and is a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network’s bladder cancer panel.
Dr. Michalski earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in 1986, and completed a residency and fellowship in radiation oncology at the Washington University School of Medicine in 1991. He earned a master of business administration from the Washington University Olin School of Business in 2001.
Dr. Eichler is the medical director of radiation oncology at Thomas Johns Cancer Hospital, CJW Medical Center in Richmond, Va., a position he has held since 2002. He is a founding member of Thomas Johns Cancer Hospital’s Oncology Executive Committee and served as chairman of the hospital’s Multidisciplinary Cancer Committee from 2003 to 2009. Prior to his post at Thomas Johns Cancer Hospital, he was the associate medical director at Bassett Healthcare, Louis Busch Hager Cancer Center in Cooperstown, N.Y. (1999 to 2002) and the medical director of radiation oncology at Southside Regional Medical Center in Petersburg, Va. (1992 to 1999), where he founded the Southside Regional Medical Center Tumor Board in 1994 and served as its chairman until 1998.
He has supported ASTRO through his work as senior editor of ASTROnews since 2010, ASTRO’s quarterly member magazine; as a member of the Health Policy Committee since 2006; and as a member of the Corporate Relations Committee since 2007. Dr. Eichler has served as a presenter on ASTRO’s behalf at the AMA CPT Editorial Panel and the AMA Relative Value Update Committee (RUC). His previous service includes positions on the Government Relations Committee and the Communications Committee. Dr. Eichler also is the State Captain for Virginia in ASTRO’s grassroots state captain initiative that assists in federal and state advocacy efforts, a post he has held since 2008.
Dr. Eichler earned his medical degree from the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, Va., in 1987 and completed his residency in radiation oncology there in 1992.
Dr. DeWeese is professor and chairman of the Department of Radiation Oncology and Molecular Radiation Sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. Since 2011, he has held the positions of vice-chairman of the Medical Board and chairman of the Administrative Committee of the Medical Board at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He has been at Johns Hopkins University since beginning his residency in 1991, with roles including associate professor of oncology and urology and the director of the radiation biology research program.
His work with ASTRO includes immediate past chairman of the Annual Meeting Scientific Committee (2011 to 2012), chairman of the Annual Meeting Scientific Program (2009 to 2011) and associate chairman of the Scientific Program Subcommittee (2009 to 2011). Dr. DeWeese is also a member of the Biology Resource Panel of the Clinical Affairs and Quality Committee, a member of the Task Force on Proton Beam Therapy under the Research Council and a member of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Subcommittee of the Government Relations Council.
Dr. DeWeese conducts therapeutic and non-therapeutic clinical trials focused on prostate cancer. His research, which has been funded by the NIH, the Department of Defense and other foundations, focuses on identifying the genetic mechanisms of radiation response and developing novel radiation sensitizers.
He earned his medical degree from the University of Colorado School of Medicine in Denver in 1990 and completed his residency in radiation oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1994.
For more information about ASTRO’s 55th Annual Meeting, visit www.astro.org/annualmeeting.
For press registration and media policies for ASTRO’s 55th Annual Meeting, visit www.astro.org/AMpress. ABOUT ASTROASTRO is the premier radiation oncology society in the world, with more than 10,000 members who are physicians, nurses, biologists, physicists, radiation therapists, dosimetrists and other health care professionals that specialize in treating patients with radiation therapies. As the leading organization in radiation oncology, the Society is dedicated to improving patient care through professional education and training, support for clinical practice and health policy standards, advancement of science and research, and advocacy. ASTRO publishes two medical journals, International Journal of Radiation Oncology • Biology • Physics (www.redjournal.org) and Practical Radiation Oncology (www.practicalradonc.org); developed and maintains an extensive patient website, www.rtanswers.org; and created the Radiation Oncology Institute (www.roinstitute.org), a non-profit foundation to support research and education efforts around the world that enhance and confirm the critical role of radiation therapy in improving cancer treatment. To learn more about ASTRO, visit www.astro.org.###
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