Keynote Presentation: 
Financial Toxicity: The Who's, What's, Why's, and How to Reduce Its Impact

Mark A. Fiala, PhD, MSW  
Siteman Cancer Center

Dr. Fiala began working as a research coordinator at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University in St Louis in 2007 and spent 8 years working as part of a care team. This time spent working closely with patients helped him gain a firsthand perspective of what people face as they undergo their battle cancer. Most notably, he saw how a person’s characteristics, their race, gender, socioeconomic status, etc. could influence the treatments they received and the prognosis of their disease. It was this experience that led him to continue his education and devote his career to the understanding and elimination of cancer disparities. 

Dr. Fiala received his Masters of Social Work from Washington University in St Louis in 2017 followed by his PhD in Social work in 2022. He has been a faculty researcher at Washington University School of Medicine since 2018. His research interests focus on the understanding and elimination of cancer disparities. He is interested in how social determinants of health, such as race, socioeconomic status, and insurance coverage, impact what treatment people with cancer receive and their health outcomes. His goal is to improve the care of underserved communities and develop interventions to eliminate disparities. In addition, he collaborates on numerous studies involving cancer epidemiology, biomarkers, and treatments.