2023 Cancer Liaison Physician Outstanding Performance Winners

Steven Curley, MD, FACS
Northeast Texas Cancer and Research Institute
Tyler, TX

“The CLP works closely with members of the cancer committee and the program coordinator to assure the hospital's Commission on Cancer accredited multidisciplinary cancer care program performs at the highest possible level to assure patients they are receiving state-of-the-art care.”

Janet K. Ihde, MD, FACS
Comprehensive Cancer Center at Desert Regional Medical Center
Palm Springs, CA

“The CLP Liaison’s job is to serve as the quality champion that oversees the Cancer Program. In my role, I analyze and present Benchmark Reports, CQIP, Quality Measures, and Survival data to the Cancer Committee at least four times a year. The data paint a picture of the quality of care we provide and identifies areas for improvement. The annual Quality Initiative project is an opportunity to improve our processes. Goal setting drives growth and continuous improvement. I coordinate our weekly Breast Pretreatment Tumor Board to ensure the latest multidisciplinary treatments and services. Collaboration with the American Society helps provide needed resources. It is my pleasure to ensure that our comprehensive program provides the highest quality, patient-centered care to our patients, under one roof. Our shared commitment to the entire spectrum of cancer care is why we are here.”

Adam Lackey, MD
Jersey City Medical Center
Jersey City, NJ

“The CLP is tasked with ensuring the high quality recommendations of the cancer committee are correctly relayed, implemented, and tracked to ensure that high quality, consistent cancer care is delivered to each and every patient, every time.”

M. Ellen Mahoney, MD, FACS
Providence St. Joseph Eureka
Eureka, CA

“The CLP is an important link between the local program and the optimal use of the accreditation standards. By analyzing and imagining improvements in care, the CLP is in a great position to use the standards creatively to convince others in the program to improve care in specific ways. The Commission on Cancer gives us the extra push and authority we sometimes need to get important changes made, especially where there is local inertia or even resistance. The CLP stands at the intersection of the analysis of local patient care and implementation of best practices tailored to local needs.”

Marc Mandel, MD, FACS
Overlook Medical Center
Summit, NJ

“The position of cancer liaison facilitates, teamwork among the medical center's multiple providers in a multidisciplinary fashion, and in their coordination with the many other personnel, required to achieve excellence beyond competence in caring for each patient as an individual. The liaison ensures that the center maintains standards, commensurate with the highest quality medical facilities, whether they be academic, or community based. Furthermore, the CLP leads the way in making each of the members of the team own their importance in this effort.”

Andrew D. Nish, MD
Iowa Methodist Medical Center (UnityPoint Health- John Stoddard Cancer Center)
Des Moines, IA

“The CLP has access to the data which allows analysis of how, as a cancer center, we are caring for our patients not only in relation to the standards but compared with other cancer centers across the country. This data allows me to look critically at our program to determine our performance and understand potential gaps in care. This can directly improve patient care through PI and QI projects as well as facilitating discussion concerning service gaps in the cancer program.” 

Jaspreet Singh, DO
Premier Medical Group
Newburgh, NY

“The work of the CLP collaborates with the cancer committee, medical staff and hospital staff to meet and exceed the cancer program standards. The CLP monitors the clinical oncology multidisciplinary practice and ensure national oncology guidelines are followed. Provides direction and improvements to implement the standards of the American College of Surgeons commission on cancer.”

Mark Sundermeyer, MD
CMH/OHSU Knight Cancer Collaborative
Astoria, OR

“The CLP role is best seen as the connector between all of the parts and team members required to achieve COC accreditation and the improved patient care that comes with it. We function as cheerleaders to motivate the team to strive for goals and the best possible patient experience and care.”

Lori Vanyo, MD, FACS
Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center
Pomona, CA

“The role of the CLP is important in maximizing quality measures, reporting and documentation in clinical practice by informing, training and guiding clinicians regarding documentation and reporting practices and thus improving overall quality in cancer care.”

Kenneth C. Wang, MD, PhD
Baltimore VA Medical Center
Baltimore, MD

“The Cancer Liaison Program offers individual facilities unique access to cancer data from across the country. By allowing sites to query the National Cancer Database in ways which are tailored to their own patient populations, the Cancer Liaison Program enables insights into cancer care which are simply not possible by other means.”