{"id":162433,"date":"2020-07-27T14:05:28","date_gmt":"2020-07-27T18:05:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?post_type=school-college-post&p=162433"},"modified":"2023-02-23T14:44:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-23T19:44:38","slug":"neuro-oncologist-thrives-constant-improvement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2020\/07\/neuro-oncologist-thrives-constant-improvement\/","title":{"rendered":"Neuro-Oncologist Thrives on Constant Improvement"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story originally appeared in <\/span><\/i><\/b>UConn Health Journal.<\/a><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

When Dr. Kevin P. Becker decided to leave Yale University to join UConn Health, he was thrilled by the chance to lead UConn\u2019s burgeoning neuro-oncology program, part of the Division of Neurosurgery in collaboration with the Department of Neurology and the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.<\/p>\n

\"Dr.
\u201cI think me coming on board was that last piece in the puzzle that has glued us together as what I think is ultimately a major tertiary center for brain tumor and spinal cord tumor treatments,\u201d says neuro-oncologist Dr. Kevin P. Becker, who joined UConn from Yale in 2019. (Kristin Wallace\/UConn Health photo)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cTo come up here to develop the program from the ground up was an extremely unique opportunity,\u201d Becker says. \u201cIt was the best decision I could have made. The potential here for neurosurgery and neuro-oncology is tremendous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Becker is a board-certified neurologist and fellowship-trained neuro-oncologist specializing in treating patients with brain, spine, and nervous system tumors. He is director of medical neuro-oncology and assistant professor of surgery and neurology in the UConn School of Medicine.<\/p>\n

The biggest challenge so far in establishing UConn\u2019s neuro-oncology program, says Becker, is the competition from other centers around the state. But between patients who have followed him to UConn and those who have learned of UConn Health\u2019s new, advanced offerings, the caseload is \u201cexploding,\u201d Becker says.<\/p>\n

A top priority for Becker is building on UConn\u2019s collaboration with the Preston Robert Tisch Brain Tumor Center at Duke University, which will enable patients to participate in the latest clinical trials.<\/p>\n

The interdisciplinary collaboration and a patient-centered approach to care sets UConn Health\u2019s neuro-oncology team apart, according to Becker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe extent of collaboration is extraordinary right across the board,\u201d he says. \u201cIt just seems to work somewhat seamlessly in most cases, and I think that\u2019s something I wasn\u2019t really experiencing\u201d prior to coming to UConn Health.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe work as a team,\u201d he says. \u201cThere is such acute attention to supporting the patients, all the way through social work support and palliative care, on a level I have not seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

The team approach across disciplines and the recent additions of Becker and Dr. David Choi, the only neurosurgeon in Connecticut with fellowship training in spinal oncology, to the expert team at UConn Health means the hospital is poised to handle virtually any brain or spine tumor case in a world-class fashion, according to Dr. Ketan Bulsara, chief of the Division of Neurosurgery, who previously worked with Becker at Yale.<\/p>\n

Further, \u201cthere are very few neurooncologists in the world with the experience and level of training of Dr. Becker,\u201d Bulsara says.<\/p>\n

As he works toward goals like formalizing a regularly scheduled neuro-oncology tumor board meeting and developing a robust clinical trial program, Becker says the organization\u2019s drive toward constant improvement and growth makes the difference for patients who choose UConn Health.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think me coming on board was that last piece in the puzzle that has glued us together as what I think is ultimately a major tertiary center for brain tumor and spinal cord tumor treatments,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s only going to get better.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou just never want to go to a place that\u2019s stagnant, and the last thing we are here is stagnant.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Dr. Kevin P. Becker decided to leave Yale University to join UConn Health, he was thrilled by the chance to lead UConn\u2019s burgeoning neuro-oncology program, part of the Division of Neurosurgery in collaboration with the Department of Neurology and the Carole and Ray Neag Comprehensive Cancer Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":162434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1868],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1873],"class_list":["post-162433","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meds"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 13:41:27","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/98"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162433"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":195862,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162433\/revisions\/195862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/162434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162433"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=162433"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=162433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}