LUNGevity Welcomes Bellinda King-Kallimanis, PhD, as Director of Patient-Focused Research

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- LUNGevity Foundation, the nation's leading lung cancer-focused nonprofit organization, announced today that Bellinda King-Kallimanis, PhD, a long-time patient-centered researcher, has joined the Foundation as Director of Patient-Focused Research.

In her new role, Dr. King-Kallimanis will be responsible for overseeing LUNGevity's Patient-Focused Research Center (Patient FoRCe). Patient FoRCe serves as a bridge to connect the patient voice with healthcare professionals, regulators, policymakers, and drug developers to ensure that it is heard and incorporated into decisions. Patient FoRCe research projects seek to uncover gaps in information, misperceptions about patient attitudes, and areas of unmet need. Findings on lung cancer patients' preferences and experiences are incorporated into healthcare delivery reform and the development of policy, treatments, and research protocols that impact lung cancer patients.

"Dr. King-Kallimanis's years of experience will bring important insights to the development, data collection, and analysis of our Patient FoRCe studies, and we are thrilled to have her on board," Upal Basu Roy, PhD, MPH, Executive Director of LUNGevity Research, says. "While progress in lung cancer diagnostics and treatment is advancing at unprecedented rates, this is often without direct input from patients. Bellinda's commitment to patients and patient-focused research will ensure our studies and their findings will benefit the constituents we serve, resulting in improved lives and outcomes for those affected by lung cancer."

Dr. King-Kallimanis has worked in patient-focused research for the past 17 years. Before joining LUNGevity as Director of Patient-Focused Research, she worked at the US Food and Drug Administration Oncology Center of Excellence on the Patient Focused Drug Development team. There, Dr. King-Kallimanis worked on the development and launch of Project Patient Voice, a resource for patients and caregivers along with their healthcare providers to look at patient-reported symptom data collected from cancer clinical trials.

Dr. King-Kallimanis also has experience in industry and academia and has published over 60 peer-reviewed papers that cover disease areas such as lung cancer, depression, cognitive impairment, and multiple sclerosis.  She received her bachelor of social science and her master of science in applied statistics from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia, and her PhD in psychometrics from the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

About LUNGevity Foundation

LUNGevity Foundation is the nation's leading lung cancer organization focused on improving outcomes for people with lung cancer through research, policy initiatives, education, support, and engagement for patients, survivors, and caregivers. LUNGevity seeks to make an immediate impact on quality of life and survivorship for everyone touched by the disease—while promoting health equity by addressing disparities throughout the care continuum. LUNGevity works tirelessly to advance research into early detection and more effective treatments, provide information and educational tools to empower patients and their caregivers, promote impactful public policy initiatives, and amplify the patient voice through research and engagement. The organization provides an active community for patients and survivors—and those who help them live longer and better lives. 

Comprehensive resources include a medically vetted and patient-centric website, a toll-free HELPLine for support, the International Lung Cancer Survivorship Conference, and an easy-to-use Clinical Trial Finder, among other tools. All of these programs are to achieve our vision—a world where no one dies of lung cancer. LUNGevity Foundation is proud to be a four-star Charity Navigator organization.

Please visit www.LUNGevity.org to learn more. 

About Lung Cancer in the US

• About 1 in 16 Americans will be diagnosed with lung cancer in their lifetime
• More than 228,000 people in the US will be diagnosed with lung cancer this year
• About 60%-65% of all new lung cancer diagnoses are among people who have never smoked or are former smokers
• Lung cancer takes more lives than the next three leading cancers (colorectal, breast, and prostate) combined
• Only 21% of all people diagnosed with lung cancer will survive 5 years or more, BUT if it's caught before it spreads, the chance of 5-year survival improves dramatically

SOURCE LUNGevity Foundation

Related Links

http://www.lungevity.org