Douglas B. Chepeha, MD, MSPH, FACS, FRCS(C) is a Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Toronto.  He attended the University of Alberta, in his hometown, for undergraduate, medical school and postgraduate preliminary general surgery.  While in a preliminary General Surgery residency, he was accepted into the Otolaryngology-Head-Neck Surgery Program at the University of British Columbia that he completed in 1993.  After residency, he pursued fellowship training in microsurgical reconstruction and surgical oncology at The University of Toronto. This was followed by a 2 year Surgical Oncology Fellowship at the University of Michigan where he also obtained a Master’s of Science in Public Health.

He stayed at the University of Michigan for 19 years where he obtained the rank of full professor with tenure. In addition, he directed the surgical oncology fellowship and was co-director of the research committee and tissue core.  While at the University of Michigan, he was part of a rich multidisciplinary environment that is directed toward solving questions though the conduct of innovative clinical trials relating to bioselection and individualized care. He returned to Canada in 2014 to rejoin the faculty at the University of Toronto.  He is a staff physician at the University Health Network and a member of the Surgical Oncology Department at the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre.

His research interests relate to clinical and translational questions in head and neck oncology. He has particular interest in clinical trials, neck dissection, tumor response, molecular epidemiology, and reconstructive surgery.

On a personal note, I am pleased to serve on Advisory Committee for Cancer Informatics at Techna.  I first met members of Techna when we started Project AIR (Automate, Integrate and Redesign).  This project is a first step towards using a queuing and viewing application to improve the patient experience and develop new workflow capabilities. Longer term, this could lead to a reduction in per patient resource use, and free capacity inside the existing, constrained physical building envelope. The next phase would be to use technology that leverages additional information from legacy and/or new information systems to assist in achieving progressively more complex algorithm development for decision making for complex care. This effort naturally blends with development of intellectual property and partnerships inside and outside UHN. This platform is well aligned to link to existing and future educational solutions for patients and clinicians.