Biography

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Dr. Gold received her Ph.D. in Health Services Research and Policy from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Prior to that, she earned an M.A. degree in public policy studies from the University of Chicago, after which she was a health policy analyst working on major policy issues in Washington, DC. Dr. Gold holds a B.S. degree in biology from the University of California at San Diego. Her interests include studying disparities in access to appropriate clinical services and outcomes assessment particularly related to cancer. Her research aims to understand health and economic implications of suboptimal cancer treatment, given that care provided in the community is different than that given in clinical trials. She evaluates large, population-based databases to assess treatment at the community level using econometric models to overcome selection bias; conducts cost-effectiveness analyses using population-based data as much as possible; and studies how treatment decisions are made that might lead to suboptimal care. Her article in the December 2008 issue of Cancer titled “Correlates and effect of suboptimal radiotherapy in women with ductal carcinoma in situ or early invasive breast cancer.” found that many women received delayed or incomplete radiotherapy following surgery for early invasive breast cancer or ductal carcinoma in situ. For those with early invasive breast cancer, the delay increased the risk of a cancer reoccurrence or new breast malignancy. This study received an enormous amount of publicity including interviews by the New York Times and CBS News. Dr. Gold also studies the adoption, diffusion, and cost effectiveness of new technologies, such as pharmacogenetic testing to tailor drug therapy to an individual's genetic makeup. As an example, she led a study to evaluate the cost effectiveness of using pharmacogenetic testing for UGT1A1 before irinotecan administration for metastatic colorectal cancer. The publication based on this study will be published in the journal Cancer in late 2009. Dr. Gold is also a coinvestigator of the HMO Cancer Research Network where her research focuses on the impact of racial disparities and suboptimal care in breast cancer treatment.

Dr. Gold is currently a Trustee of the Board of the Society for Medical Decision Making (SMDM) and serves as Liaison to Trainees. She was Co-Chair of the Scientific Review Committee for two years for the annual SMDM meeting and was the Mentoring Program co-coordinator and an active member of the Education Committee (2002-2006, 2009-). Dr. Gold has also served on the SMDM Nominations Committee (2005) and the Lee Lusted Student Prize Committee (2004, 2006). She received a Lee Lusted prize from SMDM in 2002 for her dissertation research and received the award for Outstanding Paper by a Young Investigator in 2009.

Dr. Gold is currently an investigator on a National Cancer Institute-funded study of long-term survivorship in older women with early stage breast cancer (with Rebecca A Silliman, M.D., Ph.D. [PI], of Boston University). She is also a Co-Investigator on the Economics Core of Centers for Education and Research on Therapeutics (Medical Devices) (CERT) to Weill Cornell Medical College. She recently completed a CERT pilot study to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of accelerated partial breast irradiation using Mammosite™ in early breast cancer patients. She is also the Principal Investigator on an American Cancer Society study of Disparities in Radiotherapy for Breast Cancer and DCIS (ends June 30, 2009) and is PI on another ACS-funded study, New Breast Cancer Radiotherapy Technology: Impact on Disparities in Access (2010-2012).

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