January has come and now gone…just like that.  And we know that Dr. Sanborn and Dr. Pinder are wonderfully helpful and truly committed to the GRACE community — so much so that we can only thank them for their participation this past month and take comfort in knowing that we’ll bring them back, and that Drs. Walko, Loiselle, and Cianfrocca will stay on with me.  We’re also going to try to make up for their leaving by heaping on a bounty of people and activities this month.

First, we’ll have three rotating faculty joining us again this month.  Dr. Nate Pennell from the Cleveland Clinic will be returning, as will Dr. Stephanie Harman from Stanford, with her particular specialty in symptom management and supportive care, and also Dr. Hensing from the University of Chicago and NorthShort University HealthSystem.  All have worked with GRACE before, and we’re excited to have them return.

Second, we are literally in the final steps before switching to the new, better software for the website.  The blog side (all of the post content) will look pretty similar, with mostly cosmetic changes, except that everything will function much better because we’ll be on the latest version of the right software for us… at this point, we’ve really outgrown the clunky outdated work-around version we’ve relied on up to now.  Things like the search function will not only work but will even be able to be filtered by subject, so that you’ll be able to sort and find only the information relevant to your cancer:

(click on image to enlarge)

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I’m very happy to welcome Dr. Christine Walko, a clinical pharmacist at the Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Chapel Hill in North Carolina, where she is an Assistant Professor and Director of the Clinical Pharmacology Lab.

She earned her PharmD at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh before heading to Medical College of Virginia for her residency and then to the University of North Carolina for additional residency and fellowship training, staying on as a faculty since then.  She has an extensive knowledge of the practical issues around drugs and particularly oncology drugs, but along with that knowledge, she’s known as a great communicator: she has won “Professor of the Year” at the UNC School of Pharmacy over and over in the past few years, and Dr. Weiss works regularly with her and strongly recommended her.

She’s going to help out on the forums with drug-related questions, which is right in her wheelhouse, and she might also write a few posts on topics she speaks with patients about.  I’m looking forward to having her participate.

We’re moving toward having a group of “specialists on demand” who won’t necessarily be chiming in on the forum discussions every day, especially if we think there might only be one or a few questions per week that are ideally covered by them, but rather have offered to make themselves available to help address a relevant question that is well within their expertise.  In addition to having someone like Dr. Walko, we’ve got Dr. Loiselle doing that in radiation oncology, and we’re looking forward to bringing in a couple of radiologists to help with imaging questions, and a couple of thoracic surgeons to help with lung surgery topics as well.  I know I’m not the only one who has been very happy with Dr. Loiselle’s guidance when we need him, and it’ll be wonderful to broaden the expertise of GRACE faculty by having Dr. Walko and others bring their own knowledge directly to the GRACE community.

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   I hope people had a nice Halloween, for those of us who do that holiday.  Not only are we moving from Halloween to thanksgiving, we’re transitioning from Breast Cancer Awareness Month to Lung Cancer Awareness Month, so for the many of you touched by lung cancer, please consider participating in educational, fundraising, and other supportive events for lung cancer.  And while I know that most of us are aware of the sobering statistics, here’s a thoughtful, constructive editorial piece on the impact of lung cancer, which reminds us why the ribbon is clear, for the invisible cancer, especially compared with the mass “pinking” of the world in October.

   We will also say thanks to Drs. Harman and Johnson for their wonderful participation over this past month.  We’ll be sure to bring them back, but for this coming month, Dr. Pennell will be returning, and Dr. Weiss will continue to work with us.

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As another month draws to a close, it’s time to thank Drs. Pinder and Ramchandran for their great help throughout March.  And don’t worry: we’ll all but beg them to return in the next few months.  I know they’ve found this time gratifying and enjoyable, so I’m optimistic I won’t have to do much convincing.

And with April starting, we can also welcome back some beloved favorites as well.  Dr. Ramchandran’s colleague at Stanford, Dr. Stephanie Harman, will be returning to provide her expertise on supportive care and symptom management.  And our longtime friend Dr. Weiss has returned from his time working on other activities, including his recent adventures caring for people in Honduras.

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