On August 9, 2019, Dr. Craig Shriver, Director of the Murtha Cancer Center Research Program of Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences and Director of Murtha Cancer Center of Walter Reed National Military Center, led a group of his staff members to visit CSSIMMW and held a Town Hall Meeting to update staff at CSSIMMW on topics such as: Cancer’s impact on military readiness, Biorepository activities, Clinical trial collaborations, Federal Precision Oncology Initiative, as well as, other ongoing initiatives and Programs.
The Staff at CSSIMMW also gave presentations on the activities within the organization centralized on supporting the Federal Precision Oncology program APOLLO, which stands for the Applied Proteogenomic OrganizationaL Learning and Outcomes that is a tri-federal effort led by the Department of Defense, the National Cancer Institute, and the Department of Veterans Affairs. The presentations include: Opening remarks by CEO, Tom Kurtz, overview of the organizations activities by CSO, Hai Hu, overview of operations by Director of Research Operations, Kelli Ruiz, General Biobanking activities by, Senior Director Stella Somiari and staff, Caroline Larson, Brenda Deyarmin and Lori Sturtz, and demonstrations of Informatics Infrastructure system by Director, Leonid Kvecher and staff, Brad Mostoller and Kim Murtha.
In addition, technical discussion sessions were held to identify issues that need to be address to support the APOLLO program, with solutions developed or explored.