ABCDOs of Crushing Cancer: How Advocating for Yourself, Building Trust With Providers, Care Advances, & Detection Early Improve Outcomes

Dr. Kerry Forrestal, MD was first introduced to the field of medicine in 1979 at age 16 with his local American Legion Ambulance. When he was 18 became one of the youngest people to be certified as an Emergency Medical Technician(EMT) in New York up to that time. He attended Binghamton University (Then SUNY Binghamton), earning a Bachelor of Science degree with dual majors in Biology and Psychology, which he followed with a Masters in Business Administration. During this time he also trained to the level of Advanced Emergency Medical Technician, Level III. Upon completion of his Masters Degree in Business Administration, he joined the New York Air National Guard 106th Air Rescue Wing where he served as a Commander’s Advisor on issues including drug and alcohol abatement and diversity, equity, and inclusion and was recognized as a Distinguished Graduate of the Department of Defense Race Relations Institute (DEOMI).

In 1997, he decided to pursue a medical degree and was admitted to The Renaissance School of
Medicine at the State University of New York, Stony Brook University. He was elected Dean’s Liaison for his class and created the “Career Cultural Competence” or C3 project to train all eleven health sciences schools at Stony Brook in a common forum about issues regarding cultural understanding in medical practice.

Upon completion of his medical degree, he did a residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, after which he became board certified in Emergency Medicine. His senior research project on domestic violence was accepted at Columbia University for presentation. Ultimately, Dr. Forrestal became a Fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians. For the past twenty years, Dr. Forrestal has worked in trauma centers as an attending physician in the Emergency Department. In his current role, he has served as the Emergency Department’s Medical Education Director. Additionally, he has taught medicine at The University of Maryland Eastern Shore, an Historically Black College/University, and is the Ambassador to Ireland for the American College of Emergency Physicians. He currently serves
on the Executive Board of the Maryland College of Emergency Physicians as its President-Elect.

Internationally he has served on medical missions to Haiti, as a delegate on the China Emergency Medicine Exchange through the Eisenhower Institute, and works to facilitate an exchange program between Emergency Medicine residencies between Ireland and the United States. Prior to medical school, he helped to found South Africa’s first volunteer ambulance corps in Hout Bay, South Africa. He was honored with a lifetime member award from the Hampton Bays Volunteer Ambulance Corps and Honorary Chairperson award from Hout Bay EMS.

In addition to several medical papers, chapters and presentations, Dr. Forrestal has previously published in the field of Science Fiction and Fantasy, Cataclysm: The Myst Clipper Shicaine (2016) and has written a two-act play, Club Hell, which received four Theatre Association of New York Awards (TANYs) in 2012. He has contributed to Conquer: The Patient’s Voice a magazine for cancer patients and has sat on its editorial board. He lectures regularly to EMS and other medical groups. Additionally, Dr. Forrestal teaches at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore in the Health Sciences Department. Most recently, he started hosting a regular segment on health care related issues for NPR affiliate WHCP in Cambridge Maryland.

This is Dr. Forrestal’s first non-fiction work, which is intended to be the first in a series of patient-centric books covering the many types of cancers. It was positively reviewed by the ASCO Post, the leading journal in cancer care in the United States.


Topics covered in this episode:
Liquid Biopsies 
Early Cancer Detection Tools
Cancer Under 50 
Environmental Risk Factors