Maria Quintos Baggstrom, MD, FACP, FASCO, Professor of Medicine in the Division of Oncology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has been awarded the FASCO – Fellow of ASCO (American Society of Clinical Oncology) distinction.
The Fellow of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (FASCO) distinction recognizes members for their extraordinary volunteer service, engagement, dedication, and commitment to ASCO. Recipients have carried out efforts that benefit ASCO, the specialty of oncology, and, most importantly, their patients. Dr. Baggstrom is an ASCO Education Scholar, an associate editor on ASCO’s digital education editorial board, and has served as chair of the organization’s membership advisory committee and on the steering committee of ASCO’s DEI efforts for rising second-year URiM medical students.
Founded in 1964, the American Society of Clinical Oncology is the world’s leading professional organization for physicians and oncology professionals caring for people with cancer.
ASCO Promotes and Provides For:
- Lifelong learning for oncology professionals,
- Cancer research,
- An improved environment for oncology practice,
- Access to quality cancer care,
- A global network of oncology expertise, and
- Educated and informed patients with cancer.
Launched in 2007 and formerly called the ASCO Statesman Award, the award was designed to honor ASCO’s most engaged members and volunteers to encourage more members to become involved with ASCO activities. FASCO status is conferred to eligible members upon meeting the necessary FASCO points.
This is why ASCO and this Fellow distinction are so important to me, as they have allowed me to develop and to have an impact not only locally and through our institution but also on oncology more broadly worldwide.
Maria Baggstrom, MD
As a global organization, ASCO aims to provide everyone with better access to cancer care and the latest developments in cancer care. Baggstrom shares, “Selected as an ASCO Education Scholar in 2018, we learned how to utilize education learning science concepts to help translate all of these amazing advances in cancer treatments into helping oncologists and oncology professionals utilize these advances into their day to day care for the patient. ASCO focuses on how scientific advances impacts patient care, how does it make life better, better quality of life and longer living really translates there. ASCO also has global initiatives and cooperations so that especially lower- and middle-income countries can benefit from their resources. We work with other agencies and groups to help get therapeutic agents approved so that way the latest innovations translate to patients across the world.”
Dr. Baggstrom is also the current president of the Academic Women’s Network and serves on the national steering committee for the AAMC Group on Women in Medicine and Science and on the executive committee of the Department of Medicine’s Advancing Women in Academic Medicine (AWAM) initiative, and on the steering committee for the Forum for Women in Medicine (FWIM). She also treats patients with lung cancer at Siteman Cancer Center, based at the School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and is the medical director of the BJH Cancer Care Clinic.