NURTURING RESILIENCE THROUGH THE PANDEMIC
THIRD CONFERENCE OF ROMANIAN AMERICAN PROFESSIONALS
June 5th 2021
Panel of professionals in medicine and public health:
The third presenter in the medicine panel was the founder of Stopcancertv.ro, Assistant Professor in Hematology/Oncology at Weill Cornell Medicine, Dr. Doru M. Paul,Ph.D. who left the country over three decades ago and yet found ways to help transfer expertise and updated practices in oncology with peers back in Romania. He helped develop several telemedicine counseling initiatives for Romanian patients who cannot afford second opinions. One of these initiatives involves organizing for the past five years, annual symposiums with over sixty speakers, twenty of whom live abroad and fifteen from the US. His presentation on “Bridges of Collaboration in Oncology between US and Romania” compared cancer type prevalence between Romanian and American populations and highlighting the importance of public awareness and prevention efforts. He pointed to the estimated less than 400 medical oncologists in the country after a massive exodus of physicians now working abroad. The lack of specialists has left many counties with no medical oncologists as the remaining few are concentrated in major cities. Oncologists in the diaspora can assist those in the country providing counseling about the latest protocols and treatments available in the major hospitals. Dr. Paul’s presentation focused on effective, feasible and practical involvement of the Romanian American medical diaspora in Romania. Among these, he highlighted medical humanitarian missions, teaching/research missions, teleoncology initiatives such as onconsult.ro and patient information dissemination targeting prevention. He presented the Translational Oncology Symposium hosted by stop-cancer-Romania.ro as a model. He also outlined the goals of HEAL (Health for the 21st century), a Romanian non-profit established to assist cancer patients that cannot afford council.