The Academic Enhancement Fund has been used since 1999 to enhance the academic development of the Department. Due to financial shortfalls, no funds were awarded between 2009 and 2011, and the Department is thrilled to be able to give this award in 2012. This year’s competition was specifically focused on salary support for investigators in the first five years of their academic appointment, with the goal of supporting a promising young researcher.
Dr. Winson Cheung, Assistant Professor in the Division of Medical Oncology at the BC Cancer Agency, is the recipient of the 2012 Department of Medicine Academic Enhancement Fund. His research project is titled “Impact of Urban versus Rural Residence on the Stage of Presentation, Chemotherapy Treatment Patterns, and Outcomes in Colon Cancer”. Dr. Cheung aims to investigate whether colon cancer patients living in rural areas and small towns of BC tend to have longer wait times for chemotherapy and a lower likelihood of receiving such treatments when compared to those residing in larger, more urban centers of the province. Most importantly, Dr. Cheung will seek to determine whether disparities in the timing of and access to effective chemotherapy treatments result in differences in patient outcomes, such as survival from cancer.
Dr. Cheung was born and raised in Vancouver. He completed his medical degree at UBC, his medical oncology fellowship at the University of Toronto, and subsequently went onto complete further health services research training in Boston where he also obtained a Master of Public Health degree from Harvard University. He has been a faculty member with the Department of Medicine since fall of 2009. His clinical and research practice is located at the BC Cancer Agency.