SAN DIEGO — Kimryn Rathmell, director of the National Cancer Institute, gestured toward the screen and asked an audience of clinicians, researchers, and patient advocates what they thought they were looking at. Projected behind her was a patchwork of purple, red, pink, and blue squares.
Moments later, a larger-than-life image of Taylor Swift flashed in the middle of the pattern, and laughter rippled through the room here at the American Association for Cancer Research annual meeting as attendees realized they were staring at a poster of the singer’s “Eras Tour.”
“You’ve probably figured out this is a different kind of talk if you thought you were going to come and see the payline and what I’m thinking about budgets, where we’re making investments,” Rathmell said on Monday. “This talk is going to zoom out and just do a few thought experiments to see where we think we are headed, and to reflect on how this changes the way we do our science.”
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