Park and Leyfman Hope to Advance Mission of MedNews Week Through Collaboration With OncLive

Yan Leyfman, MD

In an interview with OncLive^®, Chandler Park, MD, FACP, and Yan Leyfman, MD, shared the goals of collaborating with OncLive to bring MedNews Week to a wider audience. They also detailed the future goals for MedNews Week as they continue their efforts to provide medical education to physicians, medical students, and patients.

Park is a medical oncologist at the Norton Cancer Institute in Louisville, Kentucky. Leyfman is an internal medicine physician and clinical researcher at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, New York.

To read more about OncLive’s conversation with Park and Leyfman, check out the first part of the interview here.

To see the latest from Park, Leyfman, and the MedNews Week team, click here.

OncLive: What is the significance of MedNews Week partnering with OncLive to deliver programs on the website?

Leyfman: Onclive is a global leader in delivering the latest news and cutting-edge research and clinical updates, and it already serves a diverse and expansive audience. By partnering with them, we're able to leverage their platform to run the scope of our educational content and reach an even wider audience of individuals, including patients, caregivers, and professionals.

Our mission is global medical education, and this collaboration helps to amplify that effort. We're now able to combine our respective strengths with OncLive's expansive network and MedNews Week’s focus on mentorship, patient education, and interdisciplinary knowledge. Together, we're not just delivering news; we're fostering a space for meaningful conversations to drive innovation and impact the [oncology] field on a global scale. It's exciting to think about what this ripple effect and partnership will have on future advancements in the field.

Park: OncLive is a leader in terms of oncology education. However, in 2024, things are transitioning more to short video clips for social media, and this is something that we're focused on. By working with OncLive, we [are continuing to] push that envelope. We're thinking about new ideas to [present] cancer information into 2024.

We are also starting to think about how this information can be delivered in a more interactive way, and that's the key. I feel like [this partnership] is a win for MedNews Week and OncLive to broaden our audiences.

Part of this collaboration included Dr Park serving as a co-host for OncLive News Network: On Location at the 2024 ASCO Annual Meeting. What is the value of providing this type of coverage at large meetings”

Leyfman: It was a pleasure to bring our respective energy and enthusiasm to spotlight the innovative studies presented at this year's ASCO Annual Meeting, then engage in introspection and foster insightful conversations with the speakers about both the present and future advancements of the field. We're excited to continue to deliver the same meaningful discourse at future events.

Park: Even though I'm an attending physician and see patients, I will always be a student of oncology and cancer. [During ASCO], we talked to different people, for instance, John L. Marshall, MD, [of the Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center], who is somebody I've always looked up to. Knowing his history and all the things that he's done, and then asking him questions that relate to current oncologists today [was a thrill].

Suresh S. Ramalingam, MD, FACP, FASCO, [of Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University] joined us and talked about [data he presented] from the phase 3 LAURA trial [NCT03521154]. Just knowing that he was one of the first people to give osimertinib [Tagrisso] gave us the opportunity to dig in and start asking him questions. Many people can talk about progression-free survival, overall survival, response rates, etc. However, if you're a student of cancer and you follow these different people, you can ask them about their journey and about their experience treating patients. [Having these discussions] gives us a vantage point where we can ask these questions.

In your mind, what sets MedNews Week apart from other oncology and medical video platforms?

Leyfman: MedNews Week is dedicated to making medical education global and accessible, and we strive to aim our content toward a mainstream audience in a way that patients, caregivers, medical trainees, and physicians can all understand and appreciate. This ensures that everyone stays informed about the latest developments in the field. In addition to the medical information, we also dive into the personal stories behind our respective speakers, their motivations, their passions, and why they chose their respective career paths.

Additionally, we also bring voices from across the world. We feature everyone, and this creates a rich and diverse discourse where everyone's perspectives are featured, and no one feels excluded.

Park: One of the things we are fortunate about in oncology is that it's all about relationships. We excel at building friendships and getting to know people. Right now, if we look at the top 30 oncologists across different cancer types, they are all doing an amazing job. However, we also need to consider the emerging leaders who are actively seeing patients and conducting research. We are good at engaging with these individuals, discussing their research, and featuring them. The top oncologists today won't necessarily be the top oncologists 5, 10, or 15 years from now. For us, it's about meeting new people, building relationships, and giving these emerging leaders the opportunity to highlight their work, which is impactful both for patient care and scientific advancement.

Are there any upcoming programs or initiatives for MedNews Week that you would like to highlight?

Leyfman: At MedNews Week, we're incredibly passionate about showcasing the diversity of thought and innovation within the field. Right now, we're excited about an upcoming collaboration that we just established with Women in Lymphoma. Together, we're launching a joint virtual lecture series that will spotlight the latest developments across various lymphomas, presented by both junior and senior faculty from across the globe. What makes this initiative particularly exciting is that we're not only focusing on cutting-edge research; we're also giving a platform for these remarkable individuals to share their personal journeys.

We want to explore what drives their passions for research, what made them select their respective careers, and what impact they're hoping to make in the field. It is a unique opportunity to get to know the thought leaders of today and the thought leaders of the future. I can't wait to see these conversations unfold and emerge through this lecture series.

Park: I'm also excited about that, and it highlights the bigger goal. What we want to do is to give everybody as much opportunity as they can to talk about the research they're passionate about. They're qualified, but this is something that's occurring in oncology. They're not always given the opportunity to give talks. We're hopeful that this will be a springboard for not just for lymphoma and leukemia, but also all the solid tumors, in order to level the playing field in terms of opportunities.

Leyfman: We're passionate about delivering the latest scientific content to our mainstream audience. We're also passionate about mentoring the next generation, and I am grateful for the mentorship I received from Dr Park over the years. He has been integral in my growth, and it's a pleasure to continue to build this platform, grow it, and shape the field of global medical education.

Park: Not many people have an opportunity to become a physician, and so much of that is not based on work ethic or intelligence. There are people throughout our careers who have helped us throughout the journey. At MedNews Week, we've had people that have been accepted to medical school. We're trying to get people into residency. It's all about the journey. We want to provide medical education, but at the end of the day, it's about helping others, whether it be allowing them to discuss new research or helping our team members pursue their dreams. That is where Dr Leyfman has been instrumental. He's such a great leader and mentor. Those are the things that are always in my heart with this whole collaboration.