Faculty

Karen Rowan, DNP (Moderator)

Family Nurse Practitioner
Hawai'i Oncology
Honolulu, HI

Karen Rowan is a board-certified Family Nurse Practitioner. She received her Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She also holds an MS in Science and Medical Journalism from Boston University, and an MS in Biology from Northeastern Illinois University. Her clinical interests include cancers of the GI tract, lung cancer, breast cancer, and prostate cancer.

Prior to becoming a nurse practitioner, Karen worked as a high school biology teacher in Illinois, and then as a science writer and editor in New York. She has authored articles on advances in cancer research for the Journal of the National Cancer Institute and other publications. 

She is an Associate Editor for the Hawaiʻi Journal of Health & Social Welfare, and a member of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She has enrolled patients in clinical trials at the UH Cancer Center and is a member of the Cancer Center's working group for trials related to cancer care delivery research and symptom management. She is deeply interested in patient education and communication.

Jared Acoba, MD (Speaker)

Chief of Oncology, The Queen’s Medical Center 
Associate Professor, University of
Hawai’i Cancer Center
Honolulu, HI

Dr. Jared Acoba is an Associate Researcher at the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center and provides support in both clinical and translational research with a focus on gastrointestinal cancers. His efforts have been in developing (1) clinical trial protocols utilizing novel immunotherapeutic agents for the treatment of gastrointestinal cancers and (2) interventions to reduce racial disparities in cancer treatment.  Dr. Acoba also participates in the NCI oncology research bases and serves as a Multiple-PI of the NCI Community Oncology Research Program Grant for UHCC as a Minority/Underserved Community Site.

Rebecca Sawai, MD (Speaker)

General Surgery
Kaiser Permanante Moanalua Medical Center
Honolulu, HI

Rebecca Sawai was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, and grew up there as well as near Portland, Oregon. After years of braving Minnesota winters, the thought of never shoveling snow again was appealing – and it sparked her interest in working in Hawaii. Once she met her colleagues from Hawaii Permanente Medical Group, she knew she had made the right decision to move here.
 
Dr. Sawai earned her medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York. She completed her residency in general surgery at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital in Portland, and her fellowship in colon and rectal surgery at the Mayo Graduate School of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. I'm board-certified in colon and rectal surgery by the American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery and in general surgery by the American Board of Surgery.
 
Dr. Sawai a member of the American College of Surgeons, the American Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons, the Pacific Coast Surgical Association, and the Northwest Society of Colon and Rectal Surgeons. She also leads certain quality improvement efforts at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii to ensure their patients receive the highest standard of care.

Michael Roach, MD (Speaker)

Pacific Radiation Oncology, Physician
Cancer Center of Hawaii
Honolulu and Aiea, Hawaii

Dr. Roach is a radiation oncologist at Cancer Center of Hawaii. He serves on the cancer research advisory board and the patient review and monitoring committee at University of Hawaii. Before coming to Hawaii, he was chief of gastrointestinal radiation oncology at Washington University in St. Louis.

Disclosures:

In accordance with the ACCME Standards for Integrity and Independence in Accredited Continuing Education, Horizon CME (HCME) ensures that continuing education activities are balanced, independent, objective, and scientifically rigorous. 

All persons in a position to influence the content of an accredited continuing education activity provided by Horizon CME are required to disclose to HCME any relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies within the past 24 months. All reported relevant financial relationships have been mitigated by Horizon CME.

Michael Roach, MD, Karen Rowan, DNP, Rebecca Sawai, MD disclose no relevant financial relationships with any entity producing, marketing, re-selling, or distributing healthcare goods or services consumed by, or used on, patients during the past 24 months.