Hi there! During the following weeks, our blog will be dedicated to our SIOP Young Investigator Award winners!
Please meet Mark Zobeck, YI from the USA, in his own words.
Dr. Mark Zobeck is an Instructor in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston, Texas in the United States. He received his MD degree with honors from Texas Tech El Paso Foster School of Medicine (2014) and Master of Public Health from University of Texas School of Public Health (2014). He is passionate about improving the care pediatric hematology-oncology (PHO) patients around the world receive through his research in modeling treatment toxicities and efforts in developing education resources for the global PHO community.
Dr. Zobeck’s current research focuses on using observational data from his institution’s electronic medical record to develop mathematical models that describe and predict risk factors for treatment-related toxicity, for which he recently received an U.S. National Institutes of Health T32 grant. He has a background in epidemiology and biostatistics and a love for applying quantitative tools to order and describe a messy world. He primarily uses Bayesian statistical methods and enjoys exploring their application in medical contexts. He is also an enthusiastic user and student of the open-source statistical software R and desires to learn how to translate modern data science tools to clinical applications. Through combining these quantitative skills and tools together with his clinical knowledge as a physician, Dr. Zobeck hopes to improve the way the PHO community supports children through their treatment journey.
As a member of the SIOP PODC Education and Training working group and Abandonment of Treatment working group, Dr. Zobeck has also been involved in many efforts to improve care through education. He was one of the founding members and primary web developers of the Education and Training working group’s project Pediatric Oncology International Network for Training and Education (POINTE), which promotes education resources and opportunities for physicians in low- and middle-income countries. He is the host of a podcast produced in partnership with the working group called Global Health & Childhood Cancer (GHCC), which features discussions about the leading ideas in global health that can improve the lives of children with cancer around the world. He is also working with the Abandonment of Treatment working group to collect and disseminate best practices about reducing PHO treatment abandonment through POINTE, GHCC and other media.
He recently became the Clinical Director of the Community Education and Outreach Division of Global Hope, a program of Texas Children’s Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine dedicated to partnering with countries in Sub-Saharan Africa to provide care for children with cancer and blood disorders. In his new role, he will continue to support the global PHO community through education initiatives and work for a day when every child in every country receives the care they deserve.
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