Kaiser Permanente researcher and physician honored for her work as an emerging investigator in internal medicine focused on care of older adults
The American Geriatrics Society (AGS) and the AGS Health in Aging Foundation announced that Melisa Wong, MD, MAS, AGSF, a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research (DOR) and physician with The Permanente Medical Group (TPMG) will receive the Arti Hurria Memorial Award for Emerging Investigators in Internal Medicine who are focused on Care of Older Adults. The award will be presented at the AGS 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting in Chicago on May 9.
Wong is a thoracic medical oncologist who cares for patients with lung cancer and a geriatric oncology clinician-investigator who studies innovative approaches to improve cancer care for older adults. As a Hurria Awardee, Wong will present findings from her cluster randomized controlled pilot trial of the Best Case/Worst Case-Geriatric Oncology communication tool at the AGS meeting.
“Dr. Wong embodies the spirit of the Arti Hurria Memorial Award through her dedication to advancing the care of older adults through its incorporation into medical oncology,” said AGS President Mark A. Supiano, MD, AGSF.
Wong joined DOR in 2023, after spending 16 years at the University of California, San Francisco. She believed DOR and TPMG would allow her to increase the potential impact of her geriatric oncology research program. Wong is also a national leader in geriatric oncology and aging research through her service on the American Geriatrics Society Research Committee, Cancer and Aging Research Group Health Services Core, and Editorial Board for the Journal of Geriatric Oncology.
“I was thrilled and honored to receive this special award in memory of Dr. Hurria,” said Wong. “AGS has been an incredible professional home for me as a cancer and aging researcher, and I look forward to continuing to advance aging research nationally to improve the lives of older adults, especially given the new, unprecedented challenges that we all currently face.”
With funding from the National Institute on Aging, Wong is currently leading 2 studies focused on improving care for older adults with cancer. Her large multisite prospective cohort study is characterizing changes in patient-centered outcomes among older adults with advanced non-small cell lung cancer receiving chemotherapy and/or immunotherapy. She also carried out a pilot cluster randomized trial assessing the potential for training medical oncologists to use the Best Case/Worst Case-Geriatric Oncology communication tool to improve care for their older patients. Both studies aim to help patients clarify their goals and values in the face of uncertainty and to support oncologists keep these truths at the core of the care they provide.
“As an emerging investigator, Melisa Wong represents and reflects the future of DOR,” said DOR Director Rachel Ramoni, DMD, ScD. “Her research will play an important role in shaping the way Kaiser Permanente Northern California and other health care organizations provide care to older adults with cancer, a population that is expected to grow rapidly over the next 20 years.”
Receiving the Hurria Memorial award is particularly significant for Wong. Hurria, a medical oncologist who served as the director of the Center on Cancer and Aging at City of Hope, was one of Wong’s geriatric oncology mentors during her training at UCSF. Hurria died in 2018 at age 48 following a car accident. Wong’s research paper, ‘“You have to be sure that the patient has the full picture’: Adaptation of the Best Case/Worst Case communication tool for geriatric oncology,” received the Journal of Geriatric Oncology’s Dr. Arti Hurria Best Paper Award for 2021-2022.
“This award is extra meaningful to me because Dr. Hurria was one of my early mentors in geriatric oncology,” said Wong. “She personified community and collaboration and always sponsored trainees and junior faculty for new opportunities. So many of us in the field owe our careers to the geriatric oncology community she and others built.”
Wong will present the shared decision-making results from her pilot trial of the Best Case/Worst Case-Geriatric Oncology communication tool in the Clinician-Scientists Transdisciplinary Aging Research (CLIN-STAR) Paper Session at the AGS Meeting on Friday, May 9, at 2:45pm CT.
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