Adetola A. Kassim, MD, MS, FACP
Professor of Medicine
Co-Director, Vanderbilt-Meharry Sickle Cell Center of Excellence
Director, Vanderbilt Stem Cell Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program
Hematology and Stem Cell Transplant Program
Vanderbilt Ingraham Cancer Center
Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville TN, USA
Dr Kassim trained at the College of Medicine, Lagos University Teaching Hospital, University of Lagos, Nigeria. Residency in Internal Medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital program in New York, Hematology/Oncology Fellowship and Master of science in clinical research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Bronx, New York Bone marrow transplant training at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York and Johns Hopkins University Hospital, Baltimore, MD.
His childhood and medical school years in Nigeria exposed him to the devastating effects of sickle cell disease (SCD) in affected individuals and their families, were >150,000 are born annually with the disease. SCD affects about 100,000 people in the United States, mostly African Americans, but our healthcare systems struggle to deliver effective care. He established the Vanderbilt Adult Sickle Cell Disease Clinic shortly on his arrival at Vanderbilt in August 2001. From interrogating the brain in SCD, exploring innovative novel pain regimens that reduce the need for daily high-dose opioids, using the chronic care model of care, incorporating novel disease modifying therapies, to the use of haploidentical stem cell transplants as a curative modality, he is spearheading ways to improve care and help more patients lead happy, productive lives. Dr. Kassim has treated patient care not merely as a profession, but as a humanitarian and global health mission. He frequently travels to West Africa (Ghana and Nigeria) to advance the care of children and adults with SCD in low resource setting. He is a member of the American Society of Hematology Committee on Promoting Diversity, a member of the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network, Special Populations Committee that highlights needs of under-represented minorities and a member of the Steering Committee for the ASBMT Survivorship Group, with focus on minority populations.
