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interested in making everything better
for cancer patients across the coun-
try,” he said.
To that end, he is engaged in writ-
ing policy at the state and national
levels as well as globally.
“I do a lot of legislative work and
policy work and society work with
the medical societies.”
Page has been actively engaged
administratively in numerous
cancer-related roles. He currently
serves as an American Society of
Clinical Oncology representative to
the American Medical Association
House of Delegates. He is the Chair-
Elect of ASCO’s Clinical Practice
Committee. He also serves on
ASCO’s Nominating Committee as
the community oncology represen-
tative. Page also serves on ASCO’s
Government Relations Committee.
He was the previous Chair of ASCO’s
State Affiliates Council and is current-
ly the Texas Representative. Page
serves on several working groups
involving Payment Reform, Clinical
Pathways, 340B, Site Neutrality,
Provider/Payer relationships, Drug
Shortages, Sunshine Law, and the
Conquer Cancer Foundation Grant
Review Committee.
He is the Immediate-Past
President of the Texas Society of
Clinical Oncology and serves on
the Legislative, Education and
Membership Committees. Page is
politically active both in Texas and
nationally working on cancer-related
legislative issues. He has served as
a Consultant to the Texas Medical
Association Cancer Committee, and
as the Texas Osteopathic Medical
Association representative on the
TMA Physician Oncology Education
Program. He also serves as one
of the two mentors of ASCO’s
new Healthcare Policy Fellowship
program.
Page has been instrumental in the
development of a national oncology
“Supergroup,” Quality Cancer Care
Alliance (QCCA), where he serves
on the board, executive committee,
and chairs the membership commit-
tee. He serves on the Physician
Advisory Boards of VitalSource GPO
and Flatiron Health. He is a member
of the Via Oncology Pathways
Steering Committee and Publications
Committee and serves on the Lung
Cancer and Melanoma Advisory
Panels. He was a member of the
Weatherford Regional Medical Center
Board of Directors and is currently
the Vice-Chief of staff and a member
of the Medical Education Committee
for the Internal Medicine residency
program. He previously served on
the Tarrant County American Cancer
Society Board. Dr. Page is on the
Fort Worth Adolescent Young Adult
Cancer Task Force and Board.
In his spare time, Dr. Page enjoys
spending time with his wife, Dr.
Sheila Page, and their five children.
He is active in his church and also
enjoys skiing, water sports and fishing
with his kids.
Dr. Christopher Happ
Board-Certified Spine Surgeon
DFW Center for Spinal
Disorders
D
r. Happ is an Osteopathic
Surgeon by training.
“We focus one-to-one on how
the person actually needs to be
treated,” Dr. Happ said. “There are
a lot of surgical modalities that for
some people just really aren’t right,
but for other people it is. In this day
and age, we are working to prevent
doing harm. We are using every-
thing we have in the area of modern
technology and modern science to
improve quality of life for our patients
while abstaining from putting people
through these big surgeries that aren’t
going to help them very much. In the
last three-to-five years, our biggest
focus has been changing by recog-
nizing who will and who will not
improve by surgery because, while
we maybe can improve the situa-
t ion by surgery, down the road there
may be some problems and some
consequences from doing surgery.
The patient might want to sit down
and talk about who’s going to actu-
ally benefit from surgery in the long
term versus who’s going to feel good
right now, but then have to deal with
some things down the road.”
At DFW Center for Spinal
Disorders, they focus on the person,
not the X-Ray, meaning they custom-
ize a treatment program to suit the
individual patients. “This is why I
do what I do,” Dr. Happ said. “In
Orthopedics, if the hip is bad, the
knee is bad, the shoulder’s bad, you
go on and replace those. It’s pretty
straightforward. The ballast joints are
fairly large; there’s only two of them
… they do fairly well after surgery.”
“Within the spine, the joints
are small, there’s multiple (compo-
nents) and we don’t really understand
the bio-mechanics because it is a
very intricate system. So, that’s part
of what makes my job great and it’s
part of what makes my job extremely
frustrating at times. We try to do our
best with everybody and we try to
treat patients non-surgically as much
as possible.”
Are there ways to prevent back
injuries?
“Absolutely,” Dr. Happ said,
adding that a number of different
factors contribute to back problems;
most of them can be avoided or
controlled.
The main contributing factors are:
•Poor physical fitness – Patients who
are in poor physical shape tend to
have a higher incidence of back pain.
Exercise!
•Obesity – Patients that are obese
tend to be in poor physical shape,
leading to a higher incidence of back
pain.
•Heredity – Back pain unfortunately,
with certain conditions, tends to be
hereditary, though not for all causes
of back pain. “There’s not much you
can do about this one,” Dr. Happ
said.
•Smoking – Tobacco use degenerates
the intervertebral discs, which can be
a cause of back pain. Smoking slows