Albany, NY - July 11, 2016 - Sarah Scarpace, Pharm.D., MPH, BCOP, Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice and President of the Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association (HOPA), was among the 300 individuals invited by the Office of Vice President Joe Biden to participate in the Cancer Moonshot Summit held at Howard University in Washington, D.C. on June 29.
Announced by President Obama during his January 2016 State of the Union address, the goal of the Cancer Moonshot is to "make a decade's worth of progress in five years in cancer prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and care - to ultimately end cancer as we know it."
The Summit was held to bring together all sectors that have a role to play in making progress on the Cancer Moonshot goals, to share new ideas, and launch new collaborations and actions. The one-day DC-based event (other summits were also held across the country) consisted of a morning and afternoon session, each with didactic presentations and 14 small group breakout sessions of approximately 20-30 people. The Vice President, along with Dr. Jill Biden and comedian Carol Burnett, led the event and White House staff facilitated the breakouts.
Dr. Scarpace participated in four breakout sessions:
- Moving Discoveries to the Clinic/Enhancing Regulatory Review
- Imagining a Fully Connected Cancer HealthCare Consortium
- Incentivizing Breakthrough Research Discoveries in Cancer
- Supporting Preventative Health Behaviors
Dr. Scarpace and another colleague from HOPA, Health Policy Associate Jeremy Scott, advocated for the role of pharmacists in improving cancer care throughout the Summit as well as during the event's many networking opportunities and at the reception held the evening before the Summit.