Dr. Shaji Kumar and Dr. Siddhartha Yadav co-chaired Binaytara Foundation's officially licensed Best of ASCO conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota
Drs. Shaji Kumar and Siddhartha Yadav of Mayo Clinic recently co-chaired BTF's Best of ASCO conference in Minneapolis, MN, on August 12 & 13, 2023. As co-chairs, Dr. Kumar and Dr. Yadav played a crucial role in organizing and planning this important oncology meeting designed to educate local and regional oncology care providers about the updates from the American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting held in Chicago in June 2023.
As the leader in oncology continuing education, Binaytara Foundation (BTF) organizes local, regional, and national oncology conferences throughout the United States. In 2023, BTF has hosted three officially licensed Best of American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) conferences, including one in Portland, OR on June 24-25, 2023; another in Boise, ID, on July 15-16, 2023; and the third one in Minneapolis, MN, on August 12-13, 2023.
Binaytara Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to reducing cancer disparities through education, advocacy, and innovation. Our mission is to provide cancer care practitioners with quality continuing education, regardless of their geographical location. We would like to express our gratitude to Dr. Kumar and Dr. Yadav for their invaluable contribution to our mission.
BTF Assistant Communication Coordinator Taylor Sageman had the opportunity to interview Drs. Kumar and Yadav. In the interviews, the doctors shared each of their experiences in planning and implementing Best of ASCO in Minneapolis, MN.
Shaji Kumar, MD
Dr. Shaji Kumar is a consultant in the Division of Hematology and Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Dr. Kumar's focus areas of research include multiple myeloma and monoclonal gammopathies. He is also Editor-In-Chief of The Hematologist, the official member news magazine of the American Society of Hematology.
Watch the video to learn more about Dr. Kumar's experience in Minneapolis!
Binaytara Foundation has been trying to improve Cancer Care in Nepal and other developing countries for quite some time. The focus, so far, has been improving Cancer Care in Nepal. They are in the process of trying to establish a large cancer hospital to serve a significant number of people who currently don't have access to modern Cancer Care. The foundation also aims at improving cancer education both in the United States as well as outside the U.S.
The foundation has been doing a series of meetings focusing on different aspects of Cancer Care, all the way from addressing the issues with Cancer Care disparities and also trying to hold conferences highlighting some of the newer – or the advances that are being made in cancer care with new therapies…
And these include specific areas of focusing on precision medicine in cancer, as well as annual highlights of the major medical meetings related to cancer, both hematological cancers and solid tumors.
I have been involved with the Binaytara Foundation for quite some time. I was attracted to the foundation and its work primarily because of the need for advanced Cancer Care, particularly in the developing nations. I've had direct exposure to and have been able to witness how much needs to be done in terms of improving cancer care in the developing nations and my own experience has spurred me to try and contribute in whichever way I can to the Foundation’s cause.
I'm happy to be here sharing the ASCO updates being organized by the Binaytara Foundation and I'm doing this along with Dr Yadav, who is a colleague of mine at the clinic as well. It's really important that we try and, again, disseminate the knowledge that is presented at these major meetings. It is often impossible for everyone to be at these larger meetings, but at the same time, it's also important that the community oncology practitioners are aware of some of the recent advances so that they can again implement them in their own practice.
Because at the end of the day, we want this knowledge to be widely available and to make patients' lives better with their appropriate application. So, it's great to be able to play a role in organizing these annual meeting updates, whether it be ASCO or ASH readings, and, again, trying to focus on the practice-changing information that is presented at these major meetings.
Siddhartha Yadav, MBBS, MD
Dr. Siddhartha Yadav is also with the Mayo Clinic, where he is an Assistant Professor in Oncology specializing in the treatment of gynecologic and breast cancers. Dr. Yadav is a Chairperson for Binaytara's Education Academy Committee and is an integral part of the Foundation's educational initiatives and global oncology programs.
Check out Dr. Yadav's interview!
Full Video Transcript: "I'm a medical oncologist at Mayo Clinic and primarily treat patients with breast cancer and GYN (Gynecologic) cancer. I've been involved with the foundation for – oh, gosh – over five years now or so and in the role of – chair of the (Binaytara Foundation’s) Education Academy for the last four years or so.
So, within the education academy, one of our main missions is to address the disparities in how information about Cancer Care is delivered throughout the country here in the United States and Globally and one of the areas that we focus on is the challenge with large conferences. As you know – they have become way too big in many ways, and – as an academician, I find them interesting and helpful because I go there to learn about new research.
But as you can imagine, a lot of oncologists who practice in communities don't have that kind of time or, you know, the patience to go there and sit through all these conferences to truly understand what's changing in the field. The other challenge also is – in my practice, I just treat breast cancer patients so I can go to these large conferences, and I say, 'I just want to hear about what is happening in the Breast Cancer world.'
A lot of community oncologists do not have that kind of luxury, right? So you know they will go there, and they have to try to grasp everything that's happening in the entire oncology world. So what a conference like this does is it sort of distills down the key presentations from this large ASCO conference and brings it in a way that is easily – you know, in a format that is easily acceptable to community oncologists. So that they can spend a day or a half and learn how to take the information that was presented over five days and implement that in practice.
As a conference chair for a conference like this, it's obviously a true honor to be that because, you know, to bring that information from a large conference like ASCO and bring it to community oncologists and to think that this is going to influence patient care as we move forward is obviously a true honor.
My experience as a conference chair has been amazing and with the team, you know, you guys and everybody else has worked wonderfully. I have, I would say, the most – least – intense work over here –. My goal is really to – make sure that, you know, I identify speakers – who are the true key leaders in each of these talks and try to bring them over here. – And the rest obviously are from an organizing part.. the foundation has taken care of all of that, whether that's a venue organization logistics, all of that, and, you know, I have very minimal involvement in that. But I did find the key speakers, and trying to bring them over here in itself is rewarding because then, you know when they are here, I get to talk to them.
We get to all meet, so there is obviously the academic side of things where we are talking about the conference, but there is also the social side and the networking side, which is also very exciting. As being a conference chair, I get to talk to all these people, get to know them a little bit better, and these are folks that I have worked (with). You know, a lot of community oncologists have, (I) worked with them in clinical setting now knowing them in the social setting is obviously very rewarding as well."
About Binaytara Foundation
Binaytara Foundation (BTF) is an international global oncology non-profit organization dedicated to improving access to cancer care. Through education, advocacy, and innovations, BTF aims to improve access to cancer care for everyone around the world so that there are minimal to no disparities in cancer health outcomes.
Minimizing Cancer Disparities Through Education and Innovation
Binaytara Foundation is a leader in hematology and oncology continuing education. BTF's multi-channel approach to oncology continuing education includes oncology conferences, The Cancer News, The International Journal of Cancer Care & Delivery, and virtual enduring materials.
A Global Oncology Leader
Binaytara Foundation's global oncology programs include the establishment of a cancer hospital in Janakpurdham, Nepal. BTF's prior global oncology programs include supporting the development of the first bone marrow transplant center in Kathmandu, Nepal, and palliative care initiatives in South Asia.
Please visit the organization's website to learn more about the Binaytara Foundation's impact missions.
BTF's Officially Licensed Annual ASCO update Conferences
Binaytara Foundation has hosted annual updates from the ASCO meeting in the Pacific Northwest since 2013, including licensed ASCO Direct Highlights and Best of ASCO meetings. BTF organized several other updates on hematology-oncology this year, including those in Alaska, California, Utah, Idaho, and Texas.