I am a medical oncologist whose clinical practice is dedicated to the care of patients with genitourinary cancers, (prostate, bladder, kidney, and testicular cancers).

My scientific curiosity, coupled with my passion for helping people, drove me to the field oncology. I have made it my life’s work to care for patients with cancer, guiding them and their families through the many decisions and challenges of their disease. I believe that it is critical to develop treatment plans that are based in science but also align with patients’ individual goals and values. To that end, I ensure that each patient understands all the available treatment options, and I work closely with my colleagues in surgery, radiation oncology, nuclear medicine, and palliative care to provide the highest level of care possible.

Along with the emotional and physical tolls of a cancer diagnosis comes the logistical challenges of rearranging one’s life to accommodate necessary treatment. My goal is to understand the factors necessary to ensure quality of life among patients receiving treatment for cancer. My research thus far has focused on the use of technology to facilitate novel models of care delivery that better connect the home, community, and clinic. In previously published work, I have shown that patients with advanced cancer spend a significant amount of their remaining days receiving cancer care, of which more than half is spent waiting or commuting for care. In response to this, I have developed the “TIME: Text-based Intervention to Minimize the time burden of routine cancer carE” study that is testing the feasibility and acceptability of a novel text-based e-triage intervention to enable patients and their caregivers and clinicians the choice of safely fast-tracking through parts of their routine cancer care. I hope to continue this line of work, taking the preliminary data collected to refine the instrument and develop and test care delivery models that are more patient centered. Additionally, I have been analyzing the effect of telemedicine on key cancer outcomes specifically advanced care planning discussions and unplanned hospitalizations. My goals it to expand on this work to better understand which patients are best served by telemedicine, how we can better prepare clinicians and patients for its optimal use, and test new approaches to leverage telemedicine as a strategy to promote cancer care in the home setting. Through this work, I hope to not only better understand the role of telemedicine and home-based cancer therapy, but also how to use technology to minimize the amount of time that patients spend receiving healthcare.