September 2, 2011

Announcements

Join Team MedOnc to Ride Closer to Free 

I hope you will join me and other members of Yale Cancer Center in the Closer to Free bike ride on Saturday, September 10 to benefit Smilow Cancer Hospital and Yale Cancer Center. Riders can choose from 25 or 100 miles. Please consider joining or supporting Team MedOnc, the EPH Team, the Signal Transduction Team, or another one of the teams from Yale Cancer Center.

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Notables  

 

Kathleen Reed, RN MSN

, has joined Smilow Cancer Hospital as an Oncology Clinical Nurse Specialist. Kathleen has extensive experience as an Oncology Nursing expert in many settings, most recently in the Pharmaceutical Industry and as a research coordinator at Hartford Hospital. Kathleen's role will be to assist the nursing and medical staff in evaluation and improvement of patient care and to ensure introduction and adoption of evidence based best practices in all settings.  

 

Mark Shlomchik, MD, PhD

, a member of the Cancer Immunology Research Program,recently received an R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health to support his research into "Transfusion of Donor Effector Memory T Cells for GVL and Immune Reconstitution." The goals of this project are to understand why effector memory T cells do not cause GVHD, using a novel TCR transgenic model of GVHD, and then to develop this approach into a clinically translatable method. The grant is for $250,000 per year in direct costs for five years.

Lieping Chen, MD, PhD

, Co-Director of the Cancer Immunology Research Program, has been named to the External Scientific Advisory Board for the Marlene and Stewart Greenebaum Cancer Center at the University of Maryland in Baltimore, Maryland.

Congratulations to Lawrence Solomon, MD and Eileen Dehm, RN who both received Honorable Mentions for the 2011 Schwartz Center Compassionate Caregiver Award. Nominations for the award were accepted from colleagues, patients, and/or patient's family members.

 

Employee Profile:

Dee Radziunas

As Manager of Billing and Reimbursement at Yale Cancer Center, Dee Radziunas, CPC, CPC-H, is constantly working to make sure all policies and procedures are followed.

Her team is responsible for all patient charge-entry encounter forms for the Departments of Medical Oncology and Hematology, and many other departments seeing patients at Smilow Cancer Hospital.

An encounter form is completed after a Provider meets with a patient.

On this form the physician selects the appropriate level of service and diagnosis code, and then dictates notes about what occurred during the visit. It is then the responsibility of Dee's team to enter this information into the billing system which will generate and send claims to insurance companies. Dee is in charge of making sure the process is completed accurately and in a timely fashion as well as ensuring all dictations are signed.

Dee has been at Yale for four years, and with the Cancer Center since April 2010.

Since joining the Cancer Center, Dee feels as though she's finally found her niche at Yale. She explained, "I am finally able to fully utilize my Coding Certifications and knowledge of billing and coding in a way that I really enjoy."

One of Dee's favorite things about her job is getting a chance to work with and instruct physicians on the ever changing nature of procedural and diagnosis codes.

She speaks at faculty meetings and shares tidbits on billing and compliance procedures to eliminate problems down the road. "I feel strongly about educating people beforehand, both patients and doctors. Being proactive when it comes to billing eliminates surprises and makes things easier for everyone in the long run," said Dee.

One goal Dee had coming into this new position was to make sure all physicians were properly credentialed upon their start date, so that they could start clinic. She came to fully understand the process by working in tandem with YMG Credentialing as well as YNHH Physician Services Credentialing. This includes entering and maintaining them in the YMG Malpractice website.

Communication is key in Dee's position. She is part of a Task Force that includes her manager, Jennifer Mulligan, MBA, Associate Director of Finance & Administration, and Kevin Vest, PT, MBA, FACHE, Deputy Director, Administration & Clinical Affairs for Yale Cancer Center and Michelle Wilson, MHSA, FACHE, Associate Director of Clinical Operations. They meet to identify any areas of concern and together work to find solutions. She also participates in numerous YMG meetings such as the Clinical Administrators/Clinical Managers Meeting, the HIPAA Liaison Meeting, the Billing Compliance Leader Meeting, and PPM Focus Group, to name a few.

Jennifer Mulligan commented, "Dee has been with YCC for just a year and a half and in that time she has become an invaluable part of the management team. She

has

made significant advances in billing and compliance and is currently working on structuring a training program for faculty in this area. She is dedicated to working with our faculty and staff to find solutions to any problem. That dedication and care comes through in all of her work."

 

 

The Employee Profile section is a new segment of DirectConnect included to recognize the diverse contributions made by Yale Cancer Center and Smilow Cancer Hospital staff have to meet our patient care, research, education, and outreach goals. Each issue will highlight a staff member, giving us the opportunity to learn about the people in our Cancer Center's community and how they contribute to our mission. The staff profiled are examples of the great work being done here, and the dedication and values we possess. To suggest someone to be profiled, please contact
Emily Fenton.  

Funding and Award Opportunities

 

José Carreras International Leukaemia Foundation

E.D. Thomas Post Doctoral Fellowship 2011 

To

support research into the diagnosis, prevention, and cure of leukaemia and related hematological malignancies.

• To strengthen the research capabilities of young and promising researchers working with leading senior investigators world-wide as project sponsors.
• No citizenship restrictions.
• Candidates must have completed at least 3 years of postdoctoral training, but must be less than 10 years beyond receipt of the first doctoral degree as of early 2012.   Candidates must have begun their postdoctoral training prior to February 2009;  in most cases, candidates with faculty appointments will have started their initial appointment February 2006 or later.   
• Recipients must devote at least 60% of professional time to the proposed project.
• $50,000 per year for 3 years. ($150,000)

Application Deadline: September 21, 2011

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Women's Health Research at Yale 2012 Pilot Project Funding  

Projects are solicited that: 

• examine behavioral and social factors affecting women's health
• represent a new direction in women's health research
• expand existing health research to include study of sex/gender differences
• use an interdisciplinary perspective

Application Deadline: October 17, 2011

 

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Association for International Cancer Research Grants

The sponsor's aim is to support fundamental research into the causes, mechanisms, diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer. The emphasis is on basic, as opposed to clinical research.

Application Deadline: October 28, 2011

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Lustgarten Foundation Basic Research Innovator Awards

The Lustgarten Foundation is announcing its "Innovator Awards Program" to fund proposals aimed at supporting novel, "out of the box" research proposals in the area of basic pancreatic cancer research. Innovator awards will be funded in the amount of $100,000 for one year. These grants may be renewable for an additional year of funding at the $100,000 level provided the first year demonstrates achievement of significant deliverables and milestones and there is evidence that additional funding will lead to meaningful breakthroughs in the understanding and treatment of pancreatic cancers.

Application Deadline: September 12, 2011

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Women in Cancer Research Scholar Awards

These awards are given annually to members of Women in Cancer Research who are scientists-in-training and presenters of meritorious scientific papers at this AACR Annual Meeting.

Application Deadline: November 15, 2011

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Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PCAN)

PCAN Innovative Grants provide support for creative and cutting edge ideas or approaches, including those successful in other areas of cancer with promise for pancreatic cancer.  

PCAN Career Development Awards provide support for newly independent investigators to develop or strengthen a research program in pancreatic cancer.

PCAN Pathway to Leadership Grants provide support for highly promising early career scientists in their mentored research phase and in the transition to research independence.

 

Application Deadline: October 31, 2011

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Joseph H. Burchenal Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research

Objectives:  The sponsor provides an award to recognize outstanding achievements in clinical cancer research.

Eligibility: Candidacy is open to all cancer researchers who are affiliated with any institution involved in cancer research, cancer medicine or cancer-related biomedical science anywhere in the world. Such institutions include those in academia, industry or government. The award will be presented to an individual investigator. Institutions or organizations are not eligible for the award.

Funding: The winner of the 17th Annual AACR Joseph H. Burchenal Memorial Award for Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Cancer Research will give a 50-minute lecture during the AACR 103rd Annual Meeting 2012, receive an honorarium of $10,000, and be given support for the winner and a guest to attend the Annual Meeting.

Application Deadline: October 11, 2011

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