2015
Healthcare Leadership Award finalists Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center at Scottsdale Healthcare The Piper Cancer Center offers patients with cancer access to clinical trials that study the effects of new, investigational treatments in a state-of-the-art setting. The facility has become a destination for patients from all over the country and the world who are in search of innovative new therapies.
Researcher Dr. David Jacofsky, The CORE Institute Switching between his doctor’s coat and his suit coat, Jacofsky balances medical, business and research tasks. A joint partnership between the Banner-Sun Health Research Institute and CORE is conducting orthopedic research studies and disseminate the results through peer-reviewed publications to continually improve the standard of care for orthopedic patients.
G I B T Z A © Dr. Richard Dinsdale
he challenge of seeing something new every day attracted Dr. Richard Dinsdale to the healthcare industry. Today, that challenge has changed. “The greatest challenge that I face every day is helping individuals take responsibility for their personal healthrelated problems,’ said Dinsdale, a family practice physician at Mountain Vista Medical Center. “Whether it is dealing with obesity and associated diabetes, chronic back pain or even mental health issues such as depression, convincing the patient to do their part to address their health problems is the greatest challenge I face. Americans today seem to want a pill for everything and many lack the desire to truly participate in improving their health condition. As a healthcare provider, I have to remind myself frequently that I can only do so much in improving someone’s physical health condition.” As in any profession, Dinsdale said truly enjoying what you do and having a passion for that profession results in what he describes as “occupational happiness.” “We talk frequently about physician burnout and the many challenges facing healthcare today,” he said. “I believe that any hurdle in one’s chosen profession can be overcome if you have a true love and garner enjoyment from your occupation. A job then becomes a source of satisfaction and contentment. Especially within the field of medicine, there is no more gratifying service that can be provided than helping someone overcome or address their physical and mental challenges.”
48
AB | March-April 2015
2 A
I D
E M
5 1 0
Dr. Daniel D. Von Hoff, TGen Von Hoff, who has been instrumental in developing numerous new cancer treatments, earned the Award of Excellence in 2014 from the Hope Funds for Cancer Research. Von Hoff and his colleagues have conducted early clinical investigations of many new cancer agents and the treatments are helping patients with breast, ovarian, prostate, colon, leukemia, advanced basil cell and pancreatic cancers. Dr. Glen Weiss, CTCA Since entering practice in 2007, Weiss has completed numerous clinical trials. This year, he launched two groundbreaking clinical trials that combine chemotherapy drugs with immunotherapy, activating the body’s immune system to improve upon results that may be achieved from chemotherapy. This combination of treatments is a first of its kind and focuses on cancer types currently not being targeted elsewhere.
Physician Robert J. Arceci, M.D., Phoenix Children’s Hospital Arceci is unlocking genetic codes and developing drug therapies to improve the outcome for young cancer patients. Arceci developed technologies needed to sequence a patient’s genome within seven days of receipt of tumor sample. This had never been accomplished before. He also identified genetic changes in the cancers of patients that have led to specific, targeted treatments.