Get to know a Caregiver: Anne Chiang, MD, PhD
June 02, 2020Information
Anne Chiang, MD, PhD, Associate Professor; Chief Network Officer and Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Smilow Cancer Network, discusses how and why she became a medical oncologist.
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- 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.