Douglas Flora, Executive Medical Director of Yung Family Cancer Center at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, President-Elect of the Association of Cancer Care Centers, and Editor in Chief of AI in Precision Oncology, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“Oncology Isn’t Debating AI Anymore. It’s Building It.
Dublin. The 26th Global Oncology and Hematology Congress. Physicians, pharmacists, and industry partners from across the globe, brought together by NCODA to do what this community does best – take the work seriously.
Over the last several months, something has shifted in these rooms. The tone is different. The questions are different. A few years ago, when I started writing and speaking about ‘Rebooting Cancer Care‘, the conversation centered on whether – whether the technology was ready, whether oncology needed it, whether the promise justified the risk.
That conversation is closing. Something else is opening. What I heard in Dublin was not debate. It was urgency, tempered by discipline.
- How do we begin?
- How do we bring our teams along without burning them out or leaving them behind?
- How do we hold these tools accountable to patients – not just to the institutions treating them?
These are harder questions than the philosophical ones. They assume we are already moving, and ask only whether we are moving well.
We are no longer standing at the threshold. We are across it. The work now is to build with the same care and precision this field brings to everything else – responsibly, deliberately, and without losing sight of the patient in the room.
That shift, from if to how, is not a small thing. It took longer than I expected. Seeing it arrive – in a room full of people who treat cancer for a living – was worth the trip to Dublin.
To Natasha Olson PharmD, Ginger Blackmon, thanks for the great program and hospitality: what NCODA builds reflects genuine seriousness about the work. Thank you for including me.
And yes, I ended the evening the traditional way – continuing the discussion over a fine pint of Guinness. Sláinte!
And don’t make fun of my new hat.”
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