Get to know a Caregiver: Anne Chiang, MD, PhD

Transcript

• 00:00Welcome to the first get to
• 00:06know a caregiver interview.
• 00:10So exciting, thanks for
• 00:12inviting me. Well, first
• 00:13and foremost, you know I'm a I'm a medical
• 00:17Oncologist so I take care of patients.
• 00:19I take care of lung cancer patient
• 00:23specifically and that's a huge
• 00:25part of why I do what I do,
• 00:27which is trying to help patients during
• 00:29this very difficult time in their lives.
• 00:32That's part of why I chose to go
• 00:34into ecology and was interested
• 00:36in a lot of different disciplines,
• 00:39but I think that ecology is one where.
• 00:42How you talk to patients when they're
• 00:46so vulnerable at this time in their
• 00:49lives is super important. You can.
• 00:52You know, people often say to me, Gee,
• 00:55that must be a real Downer in terms
• 00:58of what you do or or how can you.
• 01:01How can you handle that?
• 01:02and I and I tell them that, you know,
• 01:05there's a lot of life involved in
• 01:08Indiana even if you have a disease
• 01:10that's going to affect your life
• 01:12span and how you lived at and what
• 01:15you understand from your disease
• 01:16and having a team that's working
• 01:18with you to allay your anxieties and
• 01:20that you can trust is so important.
• 01:24Right? In terms of the
• 01:27other pieces, the other hats
• 01:30that I wear it you know for Yale
• 01:35Cancer Center, it started about
• 01:37almost eight or nine years ago that.
• 01:41The vision of being able to provide
• 01:44cancer care to patients where they
• 01:47live in their communities and that
• 01:50through that the concept of the Smilow
• 01:54Cancer Hospital Care Center Network,
• 01:56it really came about. And now.
• 01:59We do have almost we have 15 locations
• 02:02within Connecticut and also Rhode
• 02:04Island where we provide care to cancer
• 02:08patients in their own community and not
• 02:11just seeing the doctor and a nurse,
• 02:13not just very simple cancer care,
• 02:16but really comprehensive cancer care.
• 02:18So we're really trying to
• 02:20provide all those key services,
• 02:22whether it means social work or
• 02:24nutrition or survivorship care.
• 02:26Palliative care,
• 02:27you're part of that Terra in terms of
• 02:30the survivorship piece you've been.
• 02:32With this,
• 02:33developing clinics in helping to
• 02:35reach people all around the state,
• 02:37so that's a really exciting part
• 02:39of my job that I helped to to
• 02:42coordinate and oversee the Docs in
• 02:44the staff that are working in those
• 02:47centers and making sure that you
• 02:49know are smilow signature of care is
• 02:52provided everywhere and that includes
• 02:54quality aspects and that includes.
• 02:57Clinical research because being able
• 02:59to provide patients with cutting
• 03:02edge access to research journals
• 03:03and novel agents is so important.
• 03:06I mean,
• 03:07when I started I put my first
• 03:09lung cancer patients in clinical
• 03:12trials with immune therapy,
• 03:14and at that time we were really worried
• 03:17about not using the standard of care chemo,
• 03:21but now eight or nine years
• 03:24later I've had patients who were
• 03:26on those initial trials.
• 03:28For with metastatic lung
• 03:30cancer, which would have been like.
• 03:33Their disease keep shrinking.
• 03:36It's just amazing or disease free.
• 03:39No, that's what we're
• 03:40going for at as you know,
• 03:42at Yale in its milers really
• 03:44helping to push that edge.
• 03:46So I also do clinical research,
• 03:48and that's sort of the third
• 03:50aspect of what I do.
• 03:52I focus on patients with
• 03:53small cell lung cancer,
• 03:55making sure that we have novel
• 03:57agents and options that we're
• 03:58trying to develop that tool box
• 04:00as I keep on telling my patients,
• 04:03and I also do research in lung cancer so.
• 04:06It it's really fun to do
• 04:09everything and I think it keeps
• 04:11me sane in each part of that.
• 04:14So when I get frustrated in terms of.
• 04:18Administrative things that I love being
• 04:21able to see my patience and if I'm
• 04:24sad about how my patients are doing.
• 04:27And sometimes that happens
• 04:28then I, you know, I'm really happy
• 04:31about being able to to create teams
• 04:34and motivate folks to provide better
• 04:36cancer care in different ways.