Louise Wang, MD, MSCE

Dr. Wang is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Section of Digestive Diseases at Yale School of Medicine and Staff Gastroenterologist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare system. The objective of Dr. Wang’s research is to improve early detection of pancreatic cancer (PDAC), the third leading cause of cancer mortality. Pancreatic cancer is deadly because the majority of cancers are found at metastatic stages, with poor survival and limited therapies. To improve morbidity and mortality from pancreatic cancer, it is crucial to identify pancreatic cancer at early, resectable stages. However, given the rarity of disease, it is infeasible to screen the entire population given the high number of false positives and downstream testing.

Dr. Wang’s research aims to improve on traditional cancer risk prediction by taking a novel approach to leverage electronic health record linked biobanks and identify high risk individuals for PDAC for subsequent targeted screening and surveillance. To facilitate these goals, she integrates approaches in bioinformatics, cancer epidemiology, and genetics. She has developed methodological expertise to carry out analyses of the VA electronic medical record for millions of individuals. She also leads efforts to improve early detection of pancreatic cancer within the VA Million Veteran Program, the largest megabiobank in the world, which links the necessary longitudinal clinical data with germline genetics. She is currently funded through the Veterans Affairs and the NIH.