Sitting in his office on the eighth floor of the Science and Engineering Hall, Mitchell Smith, M.D., Ph.D., associate center director for clinical investigations at the George Washington University (GW) Cancer Center, lays out his vision for a center that pioneers new treatments, rapidly delivers them to patients, and engages with the community it serves.
“It’s always been the goal to take good care of patients, but now we want to be on the cutting edge in terms of research and providing access to new drugs for patients,” he says.
In his role, Smith oversees all cancer clinical trials. He sees the GW Cancer Center becoming a hive of activity, opening new trials at a fast clip, while developing a strong focus on in-house science.
“We have to streamline all the paper and the regulations, make sure we can be nimble in terms of someone approaching us with an interesting study we want to do. We want to open those trials quickly, and we have to demonstrate that we can [attract] patients to them,” he says.
Smith also works to enhance trust in the community to grow participation in the trials the center runs. It’s the GW Cancer Center’s job to reach out to people living in underserved communities and educate those residents, he adds.
