CAP Profiles

Bio

Bio

I grew up hiking in the Wasatch Mountains and, after completing college in Utah, I moved to Philadelphia to attend medical school at the University of Pennsylvania in 2005. After graduating in 2009, I came to Stanford for my general internal medicine internship and residency, was invited to stay as a chief resident in 2012, and then stayed again for oncology/hematology fellowship in 2013 before joining the faculty of the division of oncology in 2016. Here at Stanford I pursue my twin passions of providing excellent clinical care and mentoring the next generation of physicians.

I specialize in the care of patients who have gastrointestinal tumors, including tumors of the pancreas, large and small bowel, liver, and biliary tree. I have experience with rare GI tumors--including both intra and extra hepatic cholangiocarcinoma--and trained under Dr. Pamela Kunz, one of the country's leading experts in the care of patients with neuroendocrine tumors and have thus seen a large number of these patients, as well.

I am lucky to have a first rate medical team by my side consisting of a nurse coordinator, a nurse practitioner, and a physician assistant. We strive together to provide capable, compassionate, responsive care and make the care of our patients our highest priority.

In addition to patient care, I am a devoted medical teacher and have worked over the past five years to elevate the teaching of medicine at Stanford University, where I have taught medical students, residents, and fellows, including conducting a randomized, controlled trial hoping to optimize the way we teach communication skills to nascent physicians.

Fluent in Spanish, I have lived in both Mexico and Argentina and am comfortable in virtually all medical situations conversing fluently in Spanish without an interpreter. I especially enjoy providing care to patients who speak Spanish as a first language.

Clinical Focus

  • Oncology, specializing in the care of tumors of the gastrointestinal tract
  • Oncology

Academic Appointments

Administrative Appointments

  • Assistant Director of Inpatient Oncology Service, Stanford University Hospital (2016 - Present)

Honors & Awards

  • Stanford Internal Medicine Residency Chief REsident, Stanford Internal Medicine Residency Program (2012-2013)
  • Heritage Scholar (4 year full tuition scholarship), Brigham Young University (1999-2005)
  • National Merit Scholar, National Merit Scholarship Corporation (1999)

Professional Education

  • Residency:Stanford Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Training (2013) CA
  • Residency:Stanford Medicine Internal Medicine Residency Training (2012) CA
  • Board Certification: Oncology, American Board of Internal Medicine (2016)
  • Fellowship:Stanford University Hospital - Oncology/ Fellow (2016) CA
  • Board Certification: Internal Medicine, American Board of Internal Medicine (2012)
  • Medical Education:University of Pennsylvania Registrar's Office (2009) PA

Community and International Work

  • HIV/TB care in South Africa

    Topic

    Serving patients with HIV and TB in South Africa

    Populations Served

    Indigent patients

    Location

    International

    Ongoing Project

    No

    Opportunities for Student Involvement

    No

  • Healthcare in Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Topic

    Providing Healthcare

    Populations Served

    BMT patients

    Location

    International

    Ongoing Project

    No

    Opportunities for Student Involvement

    No

Contact

  • Medicine 300 Pasteur Dr Rm JC007 Stanford, CA 94305
    • Tel: (650) 725-5071
    Fax: (650) 725-8381

Research & Scholarship

Clinical Trials

  • A Study of the Safety, Pharmacokinetics, and Therapeutic Activity of RO6958688 in Combination With Atezolizumab in Participants With Locally Advanced and/or Metastatic Carcinoembryonic Antigen (CEA)-Positive Solid Tumors Not Recruiting

    This is an open-label, multicenter, dose-escalation and expansion Phase Ib clinical study of RO6958688 in combination with atezolizumab.

    Stanford is currently not accepting patients for this trial. For more information, please contact Cancer Clinical Trials Office (CCTO), 650-498-7061.

    View full details

  • Trial of Hu5F9-G4 in Combination With Cetuximab in Patients With Solid Tumors and Advanced Colorectal Cancer Recruiting

    This trial will evaluate Hu5F9-G4 in combination with cetuximab. Hu5F9-G4 is a monoclonal antibody which is designed to block a protein called CD47, which is widely expressed on human cancer cells. Blocking CD47 with Hu5F9-G4 may enable the body's immune system to find and destroy the cancer cells. Cetuximab is a monoclonal antibody drug that is used for treatment of certain types of colorectal cancer as well as head and neck cancer. The major aims of the study are: (Phase 1b) to define the safety profile and to determine a recommended Phase 2 dose for Hu5F9-G4 in combination with cetuximab, and (Phase 2) to evaluate the objective response rate of Hu5F9-G4 in combination with cetuximab in patients with advanced colorectal cancer.

    View full details

  • Study of Personalized Immunotherapy in Adults With Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Recruiting

    This study will evaluate the safety and tolerability of a personalized live, attenuated, double-deleted Listeria monocytogenes (pLADD) treatment in adults with metastatic colorectal cancer.

    View full details

Publications

All Publications

  • A high value care curriculum for interns: a description of curricular design, implementation and housestaff feedback. Postgraduate medical journal Hom, J., Kumar, A., Evans, K. H., Svec, D., Richman, I., Fang, D., Smeraglio, A., Holubar, M., Johnson, T., Shah, N., Renault, C., Ahuja, N., Witteles, R., Harman, S., Shieh, L. 2017

    Abstract

    Most residency programmes do not have a formal high value care curriculum. Our goal was to design and implement a multidisciplinary high value care curriculum specifically targeted at interns.Our curriculum was designed with multidisciplinary input from attendings, fellows and residents at Stanford. Curricular topics were inspired by the American Board of Internal Medicine's Choosing Wisely campaign, Alliance for Academic Internal Medicine, American College of Physicians and Society of Hospital Medicine. Our topics were as follows: introduction to value-based care; telemetry utilisation; lab ordering; optimal approach to thrombophilia work-ups and fresh frozen plasma use; optimal approach to palliative care referrals; antibiotic stewardship; and optimal approach to imaging for low back pain. Our curriculum was implemented at the Stanford Internal Medicine residency programme over the course of two academic years (2014 and 2015), during which 100 interns participated in our high value care curriculum. After each high value care session, interns were offered the opportunity to complete surveys regarding feedback on the curriculum, self-reported improvements in knowledge, skills and attitudinal module objectives, and quiz-based knowledge assessments.The overall survey response rate was 67.1%. Overall, the material was rated as highly useful on a 5-point Likert scale (mean 4.4, SD 0.6). On average, interns reported a significant improvement in their self-rated knowledge, skills and attitudes after the six seminars (mean improvement 1.6 points, SD 0.4 (95% CI 1.5 to 1.7), p<0.001).We successfully implemented a novel high value care curriculum that specifically targets intern physicians.

    View details for DOI 10.1136/postgradmedj-2016-134617

    View details for PubMedID 28663352

  • Bruton's tyrosine kinase inhibitors in chronic lymphocytic leukemia and lymphoma. Clinical advances in hematology & oncology : H&O Varma, G., Johnson, T. P., Advani, R. H. 2016; 14 (7): 543-554

    Abstract

    The development of Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitors and their introduction into clinical practice represent a major advance in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and other B-cell lymphomas. Although ibrutinib is the only BTK inhibitor that has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, several others are under investigation. Ibrutinib is currently approved for use in relapsed/refractory CLL, CLL with 17p deletion (del[17p]), relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma, and Waldenström macroglobulinemia. Although it is clear that ibrutinib has altered treatment paradigms and outcomes in these diseases, several questions remain regarding (1) its role in frontline vs salvage therapy; (2) its use as a single agent vs in combination with biologic agents, other small molecules, or traditional chemoimmunotherapy; (3) the optimal duration of treatment; and (4) the treatment of patients who cannot tolerate or have disease resistant to ibrutinib. Because sparse clinical data are available on other BTK inhibitors, it is unclear at present whether their clinical efficacy and toxicity will differ from those of ibrutinib.

    View details for PubMedID 27379948

  • Throughput. Annals of internal medicine Johnson, T. 2011; 155 (2): 133-?

    View details for DOI 10.1059/0003-4819-155-2-201107190-00012

    View details for PubMedID 21768589