Celebrating the 2015 NCCS Focus on the Care Honorees in Pictures and Video

Last week we celebrated two individuals how have made cancer care better for survivors and their families—Dr. Richard Pazdur and Ellen Goodman. We were joined by survivors, advocates, researchers, innovators, and friends at our 2015 Focus on the Care reception in Washington, DC on Wednesday, October 21, 2015. In addition to our special attendees and honorees, we were also pleased to have Dr. Robert Califf, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Deputy Commissioner for Medical Products and Tobacco and President Obama’s nominee for FDA Commissioner, present Dr. Pazdur with the NCCS Public Service Leadership Award. The evening was also made special by the presence of Dr. Richard Sloan and Dr. Julia Rowland, who attended in support of the presentation of the inaugural Jessie Gruman Award for Patient Engagement to Ms. Goodman.

While receiving the Jessie Gruman Award for Patient Engagement, Ms. Goodman spoke candidly about the critical need to share our stories as our collective attitudes surrounding the experience of dying develop into a common human experience. Dr. Pazdur spoke of his work at the FDA as well as the call of the “patient cry.” Both speeches can be viewed in the videos below.