FOURTH CONFERENCE OF ROMANIAN AMERICAN PROFESSIONALS
VESTED IN WEAVING SOCIAL COHESION
Featured Diaspora Program during the Opening Plenary Session, Dec. 2nd 2022
Ukraine’s cancer patients don’t get counted as victims of Russia’s invasion. With support from Romanian diaspora specialists and oncologists on the ground in Romania and Moldova they need not become a dire statistic of war-time casualties. Dr. Horia Vulpe is Blue Heron Foundation’s Cancer Care Program Director, and his presentation outlines an outstanding effort to provide medical assistance to Ukrainian refugees and IDPs that seek critical medical assistance as Ukraine’s public health oncology services are brought to a halt during the prolonged Russian invasion.
Dr. Horia Vulpe spent his early childhood in Romania before moving to Canada, where he completed studies in medicine and training in radiation oncology. Dr. Vulpe treated cancer patients at the University of Toronto, at Columbia University in New York, and at the Queen's Cancer Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. With the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing refugee crisis, Dr. Vulpe decided to devote his time to help Ukrainian refugees with cancer get medical treatments in Romania, Moldova, and within Ukraine. He is the Director of the Cancer Program at the Blue Heron Foundation and splits his time between his medical practice in the US and his humanitarian work in Eastern Europe. Dr. Vulpe is also an Advisor to the Institute of Oncology in Chisinau, Moldova, where he supports resident education and capacity building in radiation oncology. For his work in global oncology, Dr. Vulpe was awarded numerous awards including Young Alumnus awards, the ASCO Global Oncology Young Investigator, the Robert Sheppard Award for Health Equity and Social Justice, and the Educator of the Year.