The Annual Meeting keynote speakers give our membership an opportunity to hear from individuals whose breadth and vision extends beyond the specialty of radiation oncology to inform them about the bigger picture of the rapidly changing health care environment. With their knowledge and expertise, this year’s keynote speakers will continue to highlight the meeting theme Pay it Forward: Partnering with Our Patients.
Arif Kamal, MD, MBA, MHS, FACP, FAAHPM, FASCO, is the Chief Patient Officer at the American Cancer Society. In this newly created role, Dr. Kamal drives coordinated efforts to accelerate progress against cancer through the organization’s patient-, caregiver- and health care professional-facing activities.
Dr. Kamal leads the American Cancer Society’s patient support objectives and the development of strategic plans to measurably improve the lives of people with cancer and their families. He oversees the organization’s cancer support, patient navigation, educational programs, patient lodging solutions, transportation services, contact center and digital patient support offerings, as well as all aspects of organizational functions that touch cancer patients across 5,000 communities around the globe.
Prior to joining the American Cancer Society, Dr. Kamal served for more than 12 years as an oncologist, researcher and innovative leader at Duke University and the Duke Cancer Institute. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Population Health at the Duke University School of Medicine, and recently served as physician quality and outcomes officer at the Duke Cancer Institute. He holds nationally recognized expertise in oncology quality assessment and palliative care.
In addition to clinical and academic pursuits at Duke Cancer Institute, Dr. Kamal co-founded Prepped Health, a company that develops innovative technology solutions to educate and engage patients facing a serious illness like cancer and their caregivers. He also holds several leadership positions within prestigious national professional organizations, has won numerous awards and is a prolific author.
Dr. Kamal received his medical degree from the six-year combined BA/MD program at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, with residencies and fellowships at the Mayo Clinic and Duke University. He holds a master’s degree in health science in clinical research from Duke University and a master’s in business administration from the University of Massachusetts – Amherst.
Dr. Kamal lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife and two young children.
Anupam Bapu Jena, MD, PhD, is the Joseph P. Newhouse Professor of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, an internist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research.
As one of a small group of physician economists in the world, Dr. Jena uses creative natural experiments to help us understand how health care works, the subject of his 2020 TEDMED talk.
Dr. Jena serves as the host of the Freakonomics, M.D. podcast, which explores the hidden side of health care, and the author of the forthcoming book, Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces that Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape our Health.
His work is frequently featured in the media, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and others.
Based on the title Random Acts of Medicine: The Hidden Forces That Sway Doctors, Impact Patients, and Shape our Health by Anupam Bapu Jena and Christopher Worsham, Dr. Jena will explore how natural experiments — random events that unknowingly turn us into experimental subjects — can show us how our health is shaped by forces invisible to the untrained eye. This engaging and entertaining presentation will spark thought-provoking conversation and surprising “ah-ha” moments centered around the role that chance plays in our health and how natural experiments can help us understand what really makes medicine work – and how it could work better.
