Sha Chang, Ph.D. – Founder and President
Dr. Chang is the developer, researcher, and clinical user of the recyclable compensator-IMRT solution that is developed and clinical used in University of North Carolina, where she is a Professor and Director of Medical Physics Research in the Department of Radiation Oncology. Dr. Chang brings decades of experience in initiating and leading a variety of innovative R&D for clinical application, preclinical research, and cutting-edge technology development. Dr. Chang founded EmpowerRT to address the huge global cancer care disparity in a unique way – use the power of social enterprise to enable IMRT in low-resource radiotherapy clinics in LMICs using largely their existing resources.
Parth Amin, CSAP – Director of Partnerships
Parth brings 15+ years of global Alliance Management experience in Radiation Therapy and Healthcare IT, including Program Management for alliance related programs. He has worked for companies ranging from multi-national conglomerates to startups and has led alliances with partner companies such as Elekta AB, Brainlab AG, Vision RT Ltd., Baxter International, GE Healthcare, Toshiba Medical, and Cerner. As the Director of Partnerships for EmpowerRT, Parth is looking forward to create a global partner ecosystem to help ensure every clinic can deliver IMRT and no clinic is left behind.
Board of Advisors
Alan Fenwick,
Chief Advisor
Alan brings over five decades of experience in program/proposal management, strategic planning, sales/marketing, M&A, new venture analysis, contracts and general management across a broad array of civil/military aerospace customers.He has held executive level roles and has worked in the private and public sector both domestically and internationally. After retirement Alan has devoted his time to mentor new startups, where he is currently the Mentor in Residence at the UNC Campus Y Social Venture Incubator.
David Weissburg,
Business Advisor
As a successful serial entrepreneur in medical device and life science markets, David has assisted early-stage companies with strategy, funding, distribution and FDA compliance. Recently, David was the CEO of Morphomics, which was a startup spun out of UNC. There he developed the regulatory and business strategy and led Morphormics from initial funding through product development and FDA clearance to significant sales. He successfully sold the company to Accuray.
Jim Cramb, MS
Technical Advisor (Physics)
As our technical advisor, Jim brings decades of experience in medical physics. Jim was the Director of Physical Sciences Department in the University of Melbourne for 14 years and provided training to visiting medical physicists from LMICs with whom Jim maintains contact. Jim is an active lecturer for IAEA in LMICs on the topic of low toxicity radiation therapy technologies, which so far has been focused on modern technologies.
Mahesh Varia, MD
Clinical Advisor
Dr. Varia is the longest serving physician-faculty member at UNC and brings a wealth of clinical research and research publications. Some of his research includes analysis of cancer treatment results, clinical trial of concurrent chemotherapy and radiation therapy, and in developing management guidelines for cervical cancer. He also has been involved with compensator based IMRT since its inception, in particular with patient selection, radiation treatment planning, and management of patients receiving IMRT. He has dedicated his spare time to volunteering in LMIC, especially India where he has participated in free medical camps for over 15 years.
Peter Sandwall, Ph.D.
Peter is ABR-certified clinical medical physicist and also the founder of Precision Physics, which has a strong track record in improving global care disparity in south America. He helps LIMCs to establish new RT clinics and perform machine commissioning work using a novel voluntourism model. Peter is active in other global health organizations as the LATAM Project Manager with Radiating Hope with projects in Honduras, Guatemala and Bolivia. He also serves with the Rayos Contra Cancer Center as an educator and advisor. Dr. Sandwall is passionate about helping humanity through education, outreach, and community development.
John Dooley
Technical Advisor
John brings over 35 years of software development experiences, five of which is in EmpowerRT software development and software management in clinic environment. John also has experience with different commercial treatment planning systems and radiation oncology clinic IT management. John has extensive experience in clinical software development, installation and configuration support, and connectivity with other systems.
empowerrt.wordpress.com 