Dr Carmen Guerra Previews Tough Topics Being Tackled at the ACCC National Oncology Conference

Carmen Guerra, MD, MSCE, FACP, is a general internist and professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. She is being honored at the Association of Community Cancer Centers' National Oncology Conference with the 2022 Clinical Research Award for her contributions to cancer equity.

Her work focuses on disease prevention, screening and early detection, treatment, and survivorship, and within those, access to cancer screening tests for underserved and underresourced populations and overcoming barriers to access to cancer clinical trials.

Transcript

What are you most looking forward to learning at the ACCC National Oncology Conference?

Well, that is a tough question, because there’s so much that I’m looking forward to at the ACCC National Oncology Meeting and learning from. When you look at their agenda, boy, they didn’t shy away from any tough challenges that we’re facing in oncology today.

They address topics such as the great resignation, burnout, and well-being, which is really threatening the field of oncology. Approximately a third to even a half of oncologists experience some form of burnout, especially after COVID[-19], and so that’s a big threat. I think there’re also [sessions] on social determinants of health and of course my [session] on unconscious bias.

But really, overall, I’m looking forward to being with a similar community in thought that isn’t shy and afraid to tackle the really tough problems in oncology, because it’s really going to take all of us to address these very complex multilevel problems. It’s a wonderful community, and I’m really looking forward to just being part of that process and conversation and discussion and reflection.