USA Health adds pediatric hematologist-oncologist Casey McAtee, M.D., MPH
Casey McAtee, M.D., MPH most recently received the American Society of Hematology Junior Faculty Scholar Award in clinical research and an Independent Investigator Award from the Rally Foundation for Pediatric Cancer Research. He has also been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
By Casandra Andrews
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To better serve the needs of children, USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital is expanding its care team with the addition of Casey L. McAtee, M.D., MPH, a pediatric hematologist-oncologist whose clinical and research career has focused on improving outcomes for children with cancer and blood diseases.
McAtee, a native of the Alabama Gulf Coast and graduate of the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Medicine, brings more than a decade of experience in pediatrics and pediatric hematology-oncology, including extensive clinical, research and public health work in sub-Saharan Africa.
For the past eight years, McAtee has worked primarily in Malawi, where he has treated children with cancer and blood disorders while helping develop the infrastructure and clinical expertise needed to improve pediatric cancer care in the world’s most resource-constrained settings. He has been a faculty member of Global HOPE (Hematology Oncology Pediatric Excellence), a collaboration involving Texas Children’s Hospital, Baylor College of Medicine and medical institutions throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
“My overarching career goal has been to close gaps in outcome disparities for children with cancer and blood diseases in resource-limited settings,” McAtee said. “Coming back to the Gulf Coast gives me an opportunity to bring what I have learned through that work to the children and families in my own part of the world.”
At Global HOPE, McAtee’s work has included developing and studying treatment protocols adapted for low-resource settings, creating programs to reduce treatment abandonment and using implementation science to strengthen clinical data and quality-improvement systems.
He currently serves as principal investigator on two major research projects in Malawi. One, funded by the American Society of Hematology, is evaluating an intensity-adapted treatment protocol for children with acute myeloid leukemia. The study is designed to examine both the effectiveness of the treatment and how it can be implemented in a resource-limited environment.
His other major project evaluates a conditional cash-transfer program designed to reduce abandonment of cancer treatment, a significant contributor to childhood cancer mortality in low-resource settings.
McAtee’s research has included pediatric leukemia, cancer in children living with HIV, and treatment-related complications and disparities in cancer outcomes. His work has been published in many academic journals, including Lancet Global Health, Blood Advances, JAMA Network Open, Pediatric Blood & Cancer, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and HIV Medicine. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical Oncology: Global Oncology, a premier medical journal for global cancer research. He also serves on the executive committee for the Programme for Advancing Research Capacity (PARC), a program within the International Society of Pediatric Oncology (SIOP) which aims to increase research capacity for pediatric cancers in low-resource settings.
He most recently received the American Society of Hematology Junior Faculty Scholar Award in clinical research and an Independent Investigator Award from the Rally Foundation for Pediatric Cancer Research. His work has also been funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
McAtee earned a bachelor’s degree from Spring Hill College in Mobile in 2007 and his medical degree from the UAB School of Medicine in Birmingham in 2012. He completed his pediatrics residency and chief residency at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center and Children’s Hospital of New Orleans before completing a fellowship in pediatric hematology-oncology at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston.
He also earned a Master of Public Health from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and completed a clinical scientist training program through Baylor College of Medicine. Before moving to Malawi, McAtee served on the faculty of Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Hospital, where he was a member of the leukemia and lymphoma teams.
His return to the Alabama Gulf Coast marks the next phase of a career that has combined direct patient care with research, public health and efforts to strengthen health systems.
“I’m excited to return home and continue building a clinical and research program focused on the ways resource limitations affect the care of children with cancer and blood diseases. Our goal is to deliver world-class healthcare to children here at home, in their communities along the Gulf Coast.” McAtee said.
As part of the region’s only academic health system, McAtee is an associate professor of pediatric hematology/oncology at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama and director of research for that division.
