1-IMOS-speakers

Dr. Gary MacVicar was an assistant professor at Northwestern University from 2005 to 2013 where he was involved in the clinical investigation of genitourinary malignancies. He has been involved in clinical trial cooperative groups, including ECOG and the Prostate Cancer Clinical Trials Consortium, and has served on the NCCN Prostate Cancer Guidelines Panel and the NCI Prostate Cancer Task Force.

Dr. MacVicar attended the University of Chicago, both for undergraduate and medical school education. He completed a residency in internal medicine followed by a fellowship in hematology/oncology, both at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Dr. Aparna Kaylan is the Director of Education for IMOS and Associate Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Her primary interests are in developing novel therapeutic combinations for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers. She is interested in incorporating immunotherapy and molecular testing into clinical trials.

Dr. Kaylan received her MBBS at Flinders University of South Australia, Australia (2005).  She completed her residency at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center, Cleveland OH, Internal Medicine (2011) and a Fellowship at Northwestern University, Developmental Therapeutics (2014).

Dr. Amir Borhani is Associate Professor of Radiology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and medical director of CT at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Dr. Borhani graduated from the Tehran University of Medical Science and finished residency in diagnostic radiology followed by abdominal imaging fellowship at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Prior to joining Feinberg School of Medicine, he served as chief of CT at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). 

His main clinical and research areas of interest include imaging of hepatopancreatic biliary diseases, spectral CT, radiomics, and quantitative imaging. He has been principal investigator and co-investigator on several funded research projects.

Dr. Eytan Szmuilowicz is the Director of Palliative Care Northwestern Medicine. His interests lie in advanced symptom management and the role palliative care can play in an integrated healthcare system.

Dr. Szmuilowicz completed his residency at Brigham & Women’s Hospital, (2004) and his Fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2005.

Dr. Nausheen Akhter is the director of the cardio-oncology service at Northwestern Medicine and the chair-elect for the Chicago Citywide Cardio-Oncology Rounds.  She is an Associate Professor of Medicine Northwestern University. She has both clinical and research interests in Cardiac-Oncology, to provide comprehensive cardiovascular care to every cancer patient. This spans screening cancer patients for cardiovascular disease to treating those who develop cardiovascular complications from cancer therapy. Her general interests also include cardiac imaging, valvular heart disease, and heart disease in women.

Dr. Akhter graduated medical school in 2002 from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine residency at Indiana University, completed a fellowship in cardiovascular disease  at University of Illinois and completed an advanced Fellowship in Level 3 Echocardiography at Northwestern University.

Dr. Pankti Reid specializes in rheumatology. Her clinic cares for patients with an array of rheumatic conditions and autoimmune diseases. In particular, she is developing a clinic to evaluate and manage patients who suffer from adverse events secondary to cancer immunotherapy agents. Checkpoint inhibitors are types of cancer immunotherapy agents that harness patients’ own immune systems to combat their cancers. However, the use of these agents can sometimes lead to side effects called immune-related adverse events (irAEs) that are akin to autoimmune diseases. Dr. Reid is working to better diagnose and treat patients with irAEs. Her work also includes research in pharmacogenomics (how patients’ genetics affect their response to medications) and its impact on patient care within rheumatology.

Dr. Reid Competed an Internal Medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati and a Rheumatology Fellowship at the University of Chicago.

Roberta L. Buell is a Principal for Provider Services & Reimbursement Information for onPoint Oncology Inc., a Division of RxVantage, and is a nationally recognized expert in coding and billing. For the last 30 years, she has worked almost exclusively with cancer therapy access–billing, coding and reimbursement for drug therapies. Her newsletter, The E-Reimbursement News, is read by nearly 4000 subscribers each month. Until July 1, 2003, Ms. Buell was President & CEO of Documedics, which is now part of Amerisource Bergen. Documedics had contracts to provide reimbursement services including hotlines, financial counseling, alternative reimbursement search, and consulting to over fifteen pharmaceutical and biotech companies in oncology and other specialty drugs.

Ms. Buell started her career in clinical administration at Barnes Hospital- Washington University School of Medicine, Massachusetts General hospital, and Stanford University Medical Center as well as having been a Senior Consultant for Deloitte & Touche and Director, Case Mix Services for Ernst & Young. Ms. Buell received her BA degree from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and her MBA degree from Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Palo Alto, California.

Alaina leads IAMHP’s committees related to Health Plan operations, state compliance, healthcare quality, and provider relations focusing on developing comprehensive best practices for improving and streamlining operations, contractual compliance, health care quality, and provider engagement.

Prior to joining the association, Alaina was Government Relations manager at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago.  During her tenure at the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, she led the federal policy, budget and advocacy agenda and diligently lead efforts to secure health care and housing access and remove health care disparities.  Alaina also was a legislative and budget analyst for the Illinois Speaker of the House of Representatives and lead staffer on the Illinois Department of Public Health issues and policy. 

Alaina was awarded the National Council on Behavioral Health’s Addressing Health Disparities Leadership Fellowship and earned her Bachelor of Science Degree in Interdisciplinary in Health Studies with a specialization on Bioethics, Humanities and Society from Michigan State University.