Smita Bhatia
Smita believes data sharing is crucial for addressing childhood cancer disparities and improving outcomes.
- Distinguished Professor in Pediatrics
- Director, Institute for Cancer Outcomes and Survivorship
- And Gay and Bew White Endowed Chair in Pediatric Oncology, University of Alabama, Birmingham
Identifying and understanding what challenges patients face during care is a driving motivation for Dr. Smita Bhatia’s (she/her) work in childhood cancer.
One issue is how often children take their anticancer medication, with lower rates appearing in underrepresented minority groups. In one clinical trial, Smita’s team developed an approach where a child’s doctor texts a reminder about taking a medication to the child and their parent. After the child takes the medication, both child and parent text back confirming the dose taken. The hope is that direct reminders make it easier to adhere to treatment and improve rates at which children across all populations take their medication.
Looking ahead, Smita hopes that “increased sharing and access to real-world data,” like the methods, outcomes, and lessons learned from her recent work, “will lead to quicker and more powerful discoveries that can be applied to patient care.”