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Transforming cancer care and advancing medical diplomacy Oncologists Eileen O’Reilly and Ghassan Abou-Alfa talk to Bridget Hourican about their journey from Dublin and Beirut to Memorial Sloan Kettering, and the importance of demonstrating integrity and compassion A fter completing her fellowship at Memorial Sloan TRINITY ST JAMES’S CANCER INSTITUTE Kettering (MSK) in New York in 2002, Eileen O’Reilly was appointed to a leading consultant-oncologist position in Eileen is chair of the external board of the Trinity St James’s Tallaght Hospital. A Trinity graduate, MB (1990) and a Dubliner, Cancer Institute (TSJCI), an institute which is transforming her plan had always been to return to Dublin after MSK. On the cancer care in Ireland by combining world-class science morning of her flight home, a colleague, Dr Ghassan Abou- with excellent patient care to pioneer new ways to prevent, Alfa who had only recently joined Sloan Kettering, detect and treat cancer. TSJCI, which will be housed walked her to her car from her farewell breakfast. in a dedicated new building in St James’ Hospital She found herself saying, ‘So what are we campus, is the first cancer centre in Ireland doing?’ He answered: ‘I don’t know but when I look forward to to be accredited by the Organisation of I come to Dublin in two weeks, I’ll tell you.’ teaching Trinity European Cancer Institutes (OECI), and is students. I want medical working towards accreditation as Ireland’s It’s an extraordinary story because they graduates to be aware first Comprehensive Cancer Centre (CCC), weren’t dating and only knew each other of the vital role integrating cutting edge research, clinical slightly. ‘It just felt like there was something they can play trials, patient care and education. between us’ is the only way that Eileen can explain it. The rest, as they say, is history: Ghassan As one of the best known CCC’s globally, Sloan came to Dublin a fortnight later, then flew to Lebanon Kettering is a model for TSJCI. The strength of Trinity’s where he’s from, spoke to his parents, phoned Eileen’s father and other Irish universities’ links with MSK are exemplified by to ask permission for her hand, proposed in Paris (under an Eileen’s experience: ‘As a junior doctor, I trained in St James’ umbrella on the Pont d’Arcole) and by New Year 2003, Eileen and Vincent’s, where I worked under John Crown. He had was back in New York. ‘Tallaght Hospital were very nice about just returned from MSK and he encouraged me to apply for a it,’ she says, ‘but I’m sure they were livid!’ fellowship there. And later I became a mentor myself to Irish graduates coming to MSK - I can’t stress enough how brilliant Eileen now holds the Winthrop Rockefeller Endowed Chair Irish medical graduates are. They stand out for the quality of in Medical Oncology at MSK and is one of the world’s leading their education, their knowledge and professionalism, and experts in pancreatic and hepatobiliary cancers. It may seem their humanistic qualities and care for patients.’ Among those like Dublin’s loss was New York’s gain, but the narrative is more stand-out Irish graduates was Maeve Lowery, who worked expansive than that: she maintained strong links with Dublin closely with Eileen at MSK and returned to Dublin in 2019 to and Trinity - ‘one of the most wonderful times of my life’ is how become Professor of Translational Medicine in Trinity and she describes her undergraduate years - and has transmitted academic director of TSJCI. her enthusiasm for her city and university to Ghassan, also a leading oncologist at MSK. As chair of the external board, Eileen provides strategic advice to TSJCI on strengthening clinical care - which she says, ‘is Promoting excellent medical care and education is at the heart really excellent in Ireland’ - and on building up people capacity, of Eileen and Ghassan’s engagement with Trinity and Dublin. developing clinical trials, and bringing accreditation to the They initially funded an exchange programme between medical next level. In November she was in Dublin to attend Ireland’s students in Trinity and Ghassan’s alma mater, the American 12th international cancer conference, hosted by TSJCI, and to University Beirut (AUB), where he sits on the Board of Trustees. receive the Burkitt Medal. The programme ran successfully for a few years but ‘due to the unfortunate economic situation in Beirut, it has been put on temporary hold,’ says Ghassan. Instead, they have focussed on two vital areas: cancer care in Ireland and medical diplomacy. The Trinity School of Medicine awards the Burkitt Medal annually to ‘an individual who demonstrates extraordinary achievement and advancement in the field of cancer internationally’. Named for the Trinity graduate, Denis Burkitt
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- celebrated for his discovery of a childhood cancer, Burkitt’s lymphoma, in equatorial Africa - the award is intended to recognise people with Denis Burkitt’s ‘integrity, compassion and dedication’. Established in 2013, the Burkitt Medal has been awarded, among others, to John Ziegler of University California San Francisco, who developed curative therapies for Burkitt’s lymphoma, and to Iranian-American oncologist, Mina Bussell, who helped established the role of a cell’s micro-environment in causing cancer. ‘It was beyond a privilege to receive this medal in honour of the legacy of Dr Denis Burkitt,’ says Eileen. MEDICAL DIPLOMACY The other area of interest for Eileen and Ghassan is medical diplomacy in which they now sponsor an annual lecture in Trinity. Medical diplomacy (sometimes called health diplomacy) is the process by which governments and nonstate actors develop agreements across state boundaries to improve global health outcomes. Since healthcare is universally recognised as a basic human right, it can become a diplomatic channel, enabling countries to step outside the immediacy of conflict to find mutual understanding and goodwill. ‘Eileen and I both grew up in countries where there was conflict and that was part of what drew us together,’ says Ghassan, ‘and it’s why medical diplomacy is so important to us.’ He has been instrumental in developing several applicable educational programmes at MSK and chaired an international committee to study germline inheritance of cancer in areas of conflict impacted by the divergence and convergence of global populations. He is currently pursuing a law degree in Fordham University ‘to better understand all the legal implications of medical diplomacy’. The inaugural Ghassan Abou-Alfa and Eileen O’Reilly Medical Diplomacy lecture was given by HE Dr Vincent O’Neill, Irish Ambassador to Jordan (and Trinity medical alumnus) on 13 January 2022 on the subject of ‘Deepening Ireland’s global footprint in international health – linking politics, diplomacy and technical expertise’. Scheduled to be in-person, it ended up being delivered online after a surge in COVID cases - appropriately enough since the pandemic occasioned medical diplomacy on a global scale through initiatives like COVAX, which oversaw delivery of vaccines to developing countries. In recognition of his effort, Ghassan was recently awarded the Order of Merit of Lebanon. In Trinity, medical students are currently introduced to medical diplomacy through the Medical Humanities module in first year and the ‘Global Determinants of Health and Development’ course in third year. In recognition of its growing importance as a discipline, the School of Medicine is now planning to expand research and teaching for both undergrads and postgrads and to appoint Ghassan as adjunct professor in medical diplomacy. ‘I look forward to teaching Trinity students,’ says Ghassan, ‘my aim is simple: I want medical graduates to be aware of the vital role they can play in diplomacy, conflict resolution and improving global health outcomes. After all, in his work in Africa, Dr Burkitt was a medical diplomat and certainly a humanitarian, and the Burkitt Medal awards not just extraordinary achievement and advancement in research but integrity and compassion - and that sends such a powerful message to students.’
