I hope you had a nice weekend. Harriet and I had a wonderful time on Saturday at a party hosted by Sandy Swain for her colleagues based primarily at MedStar Washington Hospital Center. I can’t tell you how many people came up to me to remark how nice it is to see closer relationships and collaborations between them and colleagues at Lombardi. Needless to say, I was absolutely delighted.
However, this pleasure was trumped on Sunday when we drove up to Baltimore for our grandson Isaac’s 2nd birthday party. Everybody from his preschool class was there, along with lots of our family. I don’t know how we could have had more fun. Plus, the Eagles won (though they looked horrible against the Browns). In fairness, I must concede that the Redskins and RGIII may be better than I had expected. If so, the NFC will certainly be competitive this year! Between the Redskins and Nationals this could turn out to be a very interesting autumn for those of you who are DC sports fans. Of course, the Nationals will miss Stephen Strasburg now that he has been shut down for the season. I wonder if RGIII can pitch a few games for them? If so, I hope his turn comes up when the Redskins play the Eagles!
This blog follows a short week but a busy one. I am scheduled to be on an NCI Comprehensive Cancer Center site visit this coming week, so I spent a lot of time finalizing my reviews of two programs and five shared resources. Needless to say, it has been a lot of work, but reviewing another cancer center’s application is very instructive as we head into our competitive renewal. I also agreed to sit on an AACR review panel for new colorectal cancer grants. I figured it would be a few proposals; imagine my surprise when I learned that my review load was nine proposals. It was interesting reading, but there can be too much of a good thing…
On Tuesday evening last week I participated in a dinner meeting of the MedStar Oncology Steering Committee. There is a lot of good stuff happening, including the formal signing of an updated research agreement between MedStar and GU that permits the extension of Lombardi clinical trials to the MedStar Montgomery Medical Center campus. After 12 years, our relationship with MedStar has certainly led to a robust alignment of interests and priorities in cancer care and research. Now, that is progress!
Speaking of progress, our External Advisory Committee will be here on Monday night and Tuesday to give us feedback on the first drafts of our CCSG competitive renewal. We look forward to productive meetings that provide us with guidance as we move into high gear with our application.
Have a great week.