Caroline Chung, MD
Chief Data Officer and Associate Professor in Radiation Oncology
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
 

Caroline Chung, M.D., is the chief data officer (CDO) and an associate professor in Radiation Oncology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. She holds a joint faculty position in Diagnostic Imaging with a clinical practice focused on CNS malignancies. Her research interest is focused on quantitative imaging measures of detecting tumor development, characterizing tumor behavior and characterizing radiation-induced toxicities.

As the institution’s first-ever CDO, Chung is responsible for shaping MD Anderson’s data strategy and leading its implementation from an operational and cultural perspective. She oversees the Data Governance and Provenance Office and institutional data offices, as well as leads the formation of the principles, policies and programs for stewardship, advocacy and custodianship of data.

In addition, Chung holds several leadership positions to facilitate quantitative measurement and clinically impactful interpretation of data, as well as team science and collaborative imaging efforts. She serves as co-chair of the Tumor Measurement Initiative (TMI) at MD Anderson, which aims to build an institutional platform for standardized, automated quantitative imaging-based tumor measurement across each patient’s journey to advance multidisciplinary, data-driven, high precision cancer treatment. This builds upon her prior experience as the Clinical Lead of the Quantitative Imaging for Personalized Cancer Medicine program at Princess Margaret Canada Centre in Toronto.

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, Chung has been integrally involved in the establishment of the Data-Driven Determinants of COVID-19 in Oncology Discovery Effort (D3CODE) that fosters a team data science approach to aggregate and analyze data across internal and external collaborative teams. To further enable the D3CODE effort, she has been leading the development of the supporting infrastructure and data governance processes, including data provenance, quality and ontology, which has been formalized into the Data Governance Program, which she co-chairs.

Internationally, Chung is actively involved in several multidisciplinary efforts to address the quality and standardization of imaging in clinical trials as co-chair of the Dynamic Contrast Enhanced-MRI Committee and recently appointed co-chair of the MR Coordinating Committee for the Radiological Society of North America Quantitative Imaging Biomarker Alliance, as a member of the Jumpstarting Brain Tumor Drug Development Coalition’s Imaging Standardization Steering Committee, and as co-chair of the Neuro-imaging Subcommittee in the Neuro-Oncology Committee of the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology.

Beyond her research and administrative roles, Chung enjoys serving as an active educator and mentor with a passion to support the growth of diversity in STEM. She also serves  as chair of Women in Cancer, a not-for-profit organization that is committed to advancing cancer care by encouraging the growth, leadership and connectivity of current and future oncologists, trainees and medical researchers.