
Chapter 08: Administration: Focusing on Collaboration and Education
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Description
Dr. Hong notes that he came to MD Anderson in 1984 to capitalize on research opportunities but discovered that research was not as collaborative nor as transitionally based as he had expected. He was one of the first researchers to actively reach out to people and also to develop the program projects. In his administrative roles, he actively developed a culture of collaboration: the successes he had with research designed in this way insured that “collaboration was contagious,” with people following the research template he designed.
Dr. Hong also explains that education was also part of the developing culture of collaboration. He names some fellows who have gone on to important leadership positions in the field. He also lists important collaborators with his own projects.
Identifier
HongWK_02_20131016_C08
Publication Date
10-16-2013
Publisher
The Making Cancer History® Voices Oral History Collection, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Topics Covered
The Interview Subject's Story - The Administrator; The Administrator; Building/Transforming the Institution; Multi-disciplinary Approaches; Growth and/or Change; Education; Critical Perspectives on MD Anderson; Professional Practice; The Professional at Work; Collaborations
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
Disciplines
History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History
Transcript
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
All right, we’re back recording again. Well, thank you so much for that overview of your perspective on your contributions to the field. I wanted to talk now about the many administrative roles that you have held, and also kind of talking about that with a mind to exploring how you helped shape and develop the research environment here at MD Anderson. Also, in a time when science was changing, the speed of research was changing, and there were new needs in order to support kind of modern, up-to-the-minute cancer research at every stage. So I wanted to begin just with when you came with the situation in 1984. What were your goals? What were you looking at?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
I think I touched on it briefly through the previous meeting. The main reason I joined MD Anderson in 1984 was to capitalize on the incredible research opportunities through collaborative translational research. So at the time the environment was not really—you know—the mode was not collaborative translational research.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
It was not? Interesting.
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
But I came here, and I realized right away that the patient volume was different, talent of faculty, and the infrastructure was better than where I was. So I was one of the first people that reached out to people and really inspired them to be excited about collaborative translational research. So we were the first ones to develop some program projects. And to be successful as a program project, you have to work with many clinical level investigators from different disciplines. So I was one of the first people that cultivated that kind of culture—the culture of collaboration and culture of translational research as a Vanguard group. So I take a great deal of pride. Through those kinds of interactions I made many friends, and people trusted me. Once you build up the trust, then you can (???) (inaudible), and people have been behind me. So I think I made some small contributions to that area. Then the important thing is that next that is contagious. Once I show them that I can do it, then other people followed—followed exactly the template that I developed. I think really it created this new paradigm of collaborative translational research.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now when you saw you developed a template, what are you referring to there?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Template is a team science template.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And so what did that template look like? I mean, was it like kind of a program? And what did that look like? What were your instructions for this template so that other people could follow it?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Like I started doing in head and neck cancer and lung cancer. Then the people involved some GI cancers or some melanoma, even leukemia. Basically, they followed our model. Then they used the same strategy.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So you mean that they asked similar research questions but in their own area?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Right. Exactly, that’s the point.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
When you came, you were head of the section of head and neck medical oncology. Is that correct? Now, what was your mandate? I mean, when you came in you were—
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
I was seeing only head and neck cancer patients. That was my primary responsibility.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Now, were you also—was your goal also to build up that section and to strengthen—
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Sure, to build up the section and then strengthen some research programs.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
And how did you go about doing that? What was your strategy for doing that?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
That’s the strategy, just to promote the team science and reach out to good people to work together.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Who were some of your collaborators?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Numerous collaborators. Basically, I created a culture of collaboration and respect, trust, and then tackled the science by asking good questions.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Was there an educational component to that too? How did that work? How did you educate your peers and the next generation?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
It was spontaneous. And then, obviously, let the young people follow. And then I invited them to be a participant in a research project and shared the credit and then helped them to be successful as independent investigators. So I build up the good reputation, and people constantly report to me, because they know to come to me, and at the end of the day they will get something out of it. All the people that have been with me, ever since I’ve been at Anderson, have become independent, and they moved out of here. Everyone has been successful as the cancer center director or chairman.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s a very good track record. Who are some of those individuals? Can you share some of their names?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Scott Lippman. He is the director at UC San Diego, Moores Cancer Center. The other guy is Fadlo Khuri, who is Chairman of Hematology Oncology at Emory University Winship Cancer Center. And Roy Herbst is Chief of Medical Oncology at Yale. Many, many people—Roman Perez, Chairman of Medical Oncology at Albert Einstein Medical School in New York.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
Who are some of the really important collaborators that you worked with when you first arrived—people that you felt were really on your wave length?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
One of the guys was Ruben Lawton (?). He was the retinoid biochemist. And he and I came here at the same time in 1984. So he was a basic scientist, and I’m the clinician. We were close to each other and then became friends and colleagues and team players. Unfortunately, he passed away. And Walter Hittelman, he is still here as faculty. Also, he comes from a basic science background. He was a terrific collaborator, and he helped me immensely to build up the translational research program.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
What made him such a good collaborator?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
His communication. He tried to understand clinical issues. I tried to understand what the basic science issues were, and we used the same languages to make connections.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
That translation process, yeah. Were there other important collaborators?
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Yeah, there are many of them.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
I know, you don’t want to leave people out.
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Yeah, there’s just so many people—Ignacio Wistuba, Jack Lee. Wistuba is now Chairman of the Department of Translational Molecular Pathology. And Jack Lee is a senior biostatistics professor.
Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:
So people from a wide variety of areas.
Waun Ki Hong, MD:
Oh yes.
Recommended Citation
Hong, Waun Ki PhD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 08: Administration: Focusing on Collaboration and Education" (2013). Interview Chapters. 1101.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/1101
Conditions Governing Access
Open
