Maria Russell appointed to Georgia's ACS CoC Chair
JUNE 2020
Maria C. Russell, MD, has been named to serve as chair of the Georgia Society of the American College of Surgeons (GSACS) Commission on Cancer (CoC) for a three-year term.
As chair, Dr. Russell will assist the CoC in improving survival and quality of life for cancer patients through standard-setting, prevention, research, education, and monitoring comprehensive quality care. Her duties will include:
Serving on and actively participating in the Board of Directors' meetings of the GSACS and reporting on CoC activities.
Developing and managing an annual cancer paper/abstract competition for residents and fellows in training.
Communicating with the cancer liaison physicians in the state and hosting an annual meeting in conjunction with the annual GSACS meeting.
Participating in collaborative cancer control activities with the American Cancer Society and the group developing the state cancer plan.
Dr. Russell has served as the CoC's Cancer Liaison Physician at Grady Memorial Hospital since 2014. In this role, she has evaluated, interpreted, and reported Grady's performance using data from the National Cancer Database, and created quality studies to improve cancer care at Grady.
Dr. Russell is an active member of the Multidisciplinary Tumor Boards at Emory, as well as chair of the GI Multidisciplinary Tumor Board at Grady, and co-chair of the GI Multidisciplinary Tumor Board at Emory University Hospital Midtown.
Among her various specialties, Dr. Russell is an expert in hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemoperfusion (HIPEC), which delivers highly concentrated, heated chemotherapy directly to the abdomen, allowing for higher doses of chemotherapy than systemic chemotherapy delivery.