Coral Olazagasti, MD

Coral Olazagasti, MD is an assistant professor at the Sylvester Cancer Center, University of Miami at Miami, Florida. Dr. Olazagasti developed an interest in lung cancer screening while witnessing that the majority of new referrals during an outpatient oncology elective presented with advanced stages of lung cancer. Being a Latina physician, she is personally invested in ethnic and racial disparities in the medical field and has drawn on her own experiences to highlight the inequities and barriers that minority patients face in healthcare. She hopes to continue to expand her research passions and help close the gap for minorities and vulnerable populations.

Specialty

• Oncology

Current Practice

• Assistant professor at the Sylvester Cancer Center, University of Miami

Education

• Universidad Central del Caribe (MD)
• Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital (Residency, Internal Medicine)
• Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell Health (Fellowship, Hematology/Oncology)

Board Certifications

• Internal Medicine

Career Highlights and Accolades

• Dr. Olazagasti's interest in lung cancer screening led her to create a quality improvement project to evaluate the adherence for screening and a pilot study to compare the tendencies for screening before and after providing an educational program, finding improvement in the uptake for low-dose CT after a physician-targeted educational intervention was provided.
• Dr. Olazagasti created an observational study to evaluate lung cancer screening utilization among patients with lung cancer and found suboptimal screening tendencies in high-risk patients prior to their diagnosis of cancer.
• Results from these projects, along with other projects incorporating her passions in lung cancer screening and disparities, have been presented at national and international conferences.

Publications, Books, and Media

• Missed Opportunities? An Observational Analysis of Lung Cancer Screening Utilization Amongst Patients With Lung Cancer. Cancer control : journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center.
• Disparities in lung cancer screening rates among the Hispanic/LatinX population. Lung cancer management.
• She publishes manuscripts in journals, notably “Cancer Care for All? Tales of Caring for Undocumented Patients with Cancer,” which was published in The Oncologist and led to a highlighted feature at the ASCO Post.
• Dr. Olazagasti and her colleagues from Dana Farber were awarded the AAMC 2020 Health Equity Research Award.
• She won the ASCO 2021 Merit Award for her poster “One size does not fit all: Evaluating disparities in Lung Cancer screening eligibility amongst Hispanic/LatinX and African Americans.”