“Closing the Gaps in Colorectal Cancer Care: From Screening to Survival”

Thursday, November 20
1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
SLU Orin Smith Auditorium & Zoom Webinar

Biography

Dr. Rachel Issaka is a Gastroenterologist, Associate Professor, and the Kathryn Surace-Smith Endowed Chair in Health Equity Research at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center (FHCC) and the University of Washington (UW). She is the Director of the FHCC/UW Medicine Population Health Colorectal Cancer Screening Program. Dr. Issaka’s research focuses on improving outcomes across the colorectal cancer care continuum, including equitable access to screening and follow-up of non-invasive screening tests. Her work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the American College of Gastroenterology.

Dr. Issaka has contributed to national medical practice guidelines for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN), and the National Colorectal Cancer Roundtable (NCCRT). She has also served as an advisor to the President’s Cancer Panel and the COVID-19 Prevention Network, a group formed to provide oversight for National Institutes of Health funded COVID-19 vaccine trials.

Dr. Issaka completed her gastroenterology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco where she also earned a master’s in clinical research. She completed her internal medicine residency at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, where she served as chief resident and obtained her medical degree from the University of Michigan Medical School.