Anabella Aspiras, RN, returned to the United States after working abroad with Doctors Without Borders to head up patient engagement for Vice President Joe Biden's Cancer Moonshot Task Force, a $1 billion project to end cancer.
Ms. Aspiras completed her undergraduate studies at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and earned a Masters of Public Administration from NYU Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service. Prior to her work with Doctors Without Borders, Ms. Aspiras was an administrator with New York-Presbyterian Hospital. Recently, Ms. Aspiras spoke with Technical.ly about her Moonshot work.
Here are four quotes from the interview.
1. On taking the job: "The opportunity to serve as director for patient engagement on Vice President Biden's Cancer Moonshot Task Force spoke to every meaningful identity I know: nurse, hospital administrator and daughter whose mother died of metastatic breast cancer. I always say that I take the 'moon' in 'Cancer Moonshot' very literally and see my role as reflecting to my colleagues both the challenges and light of patient care — truly, it is a privilege to care for oncology patients. When the opportunity presented itself to join the Cancer Moonshot and ensure that our work is anchored to the patient experience, I didn't think twice."
2. On listening to patients: "We have everything to learn from our patients. When we listen to patients speak about their care, we learn how to improve and design care delivery models that put patients at the center. Patients' genetics and lifestyles hold the keys to unlocking cures and finding better treatments. Perhaps the most important thing a patient ever taught me was to remember what's important. As providers and policymakers caught in the chaos of change and transition, we must work tirelessly to listen to patients."
3. On the Moonshot's open access "Genomic Data Commons": "What sets the GDC apart is that it contains harmonized, raw, unprocessed datasets so that researchers can verify each other's findings. Having high-quality, raw data readily and freely available to the research community can accelerate scientific breakthroughs, and, by extension, medical advances for patients."
4. On the importance of community care: "Community care, and what I mean here is care that occurs outside the hospital setting, is responsible for 85 percent of cancer care in this country. Strong community and primary care — which was not my chief responsibility as an inpatient nurse and administrator — may allow patients to receive all their care in an outpatient setting. This allows patients to retain more of their lives during treatment. Ensuring that community oncologists can provide the best possible care supports the Cancer Moonshot goal of making high quality oncology care accessible to every cancer patient, and I feel that this is critically important to our efforts."
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