Loria Pollack, MD, MPH

Lori A. “Loria” Pollack, MD, MPH, focuses on the evaluation and enhancement of the National Program of Cancer Registries in CDC’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control (DCPC). Dr. Pollack leads the cancer surveillance data visualization initiative and advises on a multistate registry project to support cancer data for comparative effectiveness and patient-centered outcome research. She also focuses on ensuring the quality of cancer surveillance data, including the transition and implementation to a more detailed approach to cancer staging.

Prior to this position, Dr. Pollack served for nine years in DCPC’s Epidemiology and Applied Research Branch, primarily characterizing the issue of cancer survivorship and leading national efforts related to quality of life and care after cancer treatment.

Dr. Pollack joined CDC in 2002 as a U.S. Public Health Service officer in the Epidemic Intelligence Service after receiving degrees in medicine and public health from Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and completing Columbia University’s primary care internal medicine residency in Cooperstown, New York. She later enrolled in a second residency in preventive medicine and is board-certified in both specialties.

Dr. Pollack has diverse experience in chronic disease, infectious disease, and local public health. In 2012, she was assigned to the Medical Director of the local health department in Atlanta, Georgia, where she was instrumental in designing a new HIV prevention program that included outreach to the most at-risk population including linkage to treatment. She also spent three years (2013–2015) in CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, focused on preventing health care-associated illness and addressing antibiotic resistance. Dr. Pollack led a collaboration with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control to develop antibiotic stewardship program indicators that are now incorporated into CDC’s National Health Safety Network annual hospital survey.

Dr. Pollack has published more than 50 peer-reviewed papers and government reports in epidemiology, health service research, and quality improvement. She is the CDC representative to the American Joint Committee on Cancer and has served on many of CDC’s public health emergency responses, including a post-hurricane deployment, SARS, fungal meningitis from contaminated injections, and the domestic Ebola response. A driving theme in Dr. Pollack’s career is the translation and dissemination of research into practical guidance and tools to improve health and health care.

The most recent articles Dr. Pollack has authored include—

• 2015 Identify, isolate, inform: Background and considerations for Ebola virus disease preparedness in U.S. ambulatory care settings.
• 2014 Core elements of hospital antibiotic stewardship programs from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
• 2014 The role of public health in antimicrobial stewardship in healthcare.
• 2014 Estimates of young breast cancer survivors at risk for infertility in the U.S.
• 2012 A National Action Plan for cancer survivorship: Advancing public health strategies [PDF-1MB]
• 2011 Melanoma survival in the United States, 1992 to 2005.
• 2011 Dissemination and translation: a frontier for cancer survivorship research.
• 2010 A public health focus on infertility prevention, detection, and management.
• 2009 Care of long-term cancer survivors: physicians seen by Medicare enrollees surviving longer than 5 years.
• 2009 Enhancement of identifying cancer specialists through the linkage of Medicare claims to additional sources of physician specialty.
• 2006 Health insurance coverage and cost barriers to needed medical care among U.S. adult cancer survivors age <65 years.
• 2006 Use of the spatial scan statistic to identify geographic variations in late stage colorectal cancer in California (United States).

Dr. Pollack talks about the importance of cancer registry data to understanding how cancer affects the United States in this podcast.