Understanding Patient Populations to Diversify Clinical Trials with Ankit Kansagra, MD

In this episode, Ankit Kansagra, MD, discusses his path into medicine, how medical institutions can address systemic diversity issues and his personal experience as a physician during the pandemic. Welcome to another exciting episode of Oncology Overdrive :13 About Kansagra :20 The interview 2:10 Tell me about how you chose to go into this field 2:28 What brought you into that space of trying to figure out how to increase this more diverse population of patients? 5:30 What are some ways that institutions can look internally at their infrastructure? What are some systemic issues that you think could be fixed in other institutions? 11:28 Have you seen a shift in the way people are discussing these types of things, whether it comes to cancer or COVID? 14:51 How have you been navigating this last year and a half treating your patients? 17:09 What are you advising your patients right now when they are asking you about this third dose of the vaccine? 20:24 Kansagra's one pearl 24:29 How to reach Kansagra 26:12 Ankit Kansagra, MD, is an assistant professor in the department of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in stem cell transplants and CAR-T therapy and has particular expertise in caring for patients with plasma cell disorders, including multiple myeloma, amyloidosis, and Waldenström macroglobulinemia. He is the assistant director of UTSW's Outpatient Stem Cell Transplant Program. We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to Dr. Jain at [email protected]. Follow us on Twitter @HemOncToday and @ShikhaJainMD. Kansagra can be reached on Twitter @KansagraMD.    Disclosures: Jain reports she is a paid freelance writer for Lippincott. Kansagra reports no relevant financial disclosures.