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.
