A patient walks into a hospital with scans already done. And yet, they’re asked to repeat everything.

Not because the system is inefficient, but because the data doesn’t mean the same thing everywhere.

In this episode, we explore AI and data in cancer care with Dr. Caroline Chung, and why context is the missing piece in turning data into meaningful decisions.

Caroline is Chief Data and Analytics Officer at MD Anderson and Chair of Women in Cancer. She sits at the intersection of clinical care, data science, and leadership, and brings a rare perspective on how these worlds actually come together.

We talk about why the same scan can lead to different conclusions, how AI can create false confidence if context is missing, and why many promising innovations fail to scale. She shares how her team approaches data differently, focusing on “fit for purpose” rather than perfection, and why defining the problem matters more than the technology itself.

She also shares a moment early in her career that reshaped how she sees her role, not just as someone who treats disease, but as someone who walks alongside patients and families through their journey.

This is a conversation about progress in cancer care, but also about what we risk losing if we move too fast without intention.

Bio of Caroline Chung, MD, MSc:

Dr. Chung is Vice President and Chief Data & Analytics Officer at MD Anderson Cancer Center, where she also serves as Co-Director of the Institute for Data Science in Oncology and holds a tenured professorship in Radiation Oncology and Diagnostic Imaging. A practicing clinician specializing in CNS malignancies, she leads a computational imaging lab pioneering quantitative approaches including digital twins to tumor detection, treatment characterization, and personalized cancer care.

What distinguishes Dr. Chung as a trailblazer is her rare ability to translate firsthand clinical challenges into transformative enterprise-wide and global AI strategy. She has architected and championed institutional, national, and international frameworks that bring precision medicine from concept to clinical reality, leveraging data science, AI, and quantitative imaging to measurably improve patient outcomes at scale.

Her global thought leadership spans the most influential bodies shaping the future of medical AI. She is co-president of the Quantitative Medical Imaging Coalition (QMIC), co-chairs the Quantitative Imaging for Assessment of Response in Oncology Committee of the International Commission on Radiation Units and Measurements (ICRU), and co-chairs the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) AI Community of Practice. She served on the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee on Digital Twins, and as a member of the NIH Advisory Committee to the Director Working Group on AI.

Dr. Chung exemplifies the convergence of scientific rigor, visionary leadership, and enterprise impact--making her a defining voice in the responsible and transformative deployment of data science and AI in oncology.

Music Credit:

"Upbeat Corporate" by Music For Creators is licensed under CC BY (Creative Commons Attribution) via freemusicarchive.org.