End-of-year reflections from Dr Nina
What a year this has been - from launching a new free integrative oncology app and travelling to 4 continents to writing a book and completing two postgraduate qualifications! It has been both challenging and exciting in many ways, and I am deeply grateful for the support of my family, Synthesis Clinic colleagues, friends and community, whom I am immensely fortunate to have in my life. I also want to extend special thanks to my amazing administrative staff, including Jody Middleton (our integrative cancer care clinic coordinator) and Emma Higginson (my non-clinical PA and Chief Dr Nina Management Officer). Without these unsung heroes of organisation and support and the input of our wider community none of the amazing events and achievements over 2023 would be possible.
2023 in review
➡ January-February - the Oncio app development started at the Oncio CIC co-founded by me and Dr Penny Kechagioglou. As the first step we completed a survey with nearly 200 people impacted by cancer, an essential part of co-designing the first free integrative oncology support app together with our professional and expert patient panels and programme contributors. The key results from this survey were later presented as a poster at the SIO (Society for Integrative Oncology) Annual Conference 2023 in Banff, Canada. It was an incredible experience to see NHS, charity and private sectors collaborate so beautifully in the development of the Oncio app, a clear indication of how much we all feel it is needed as healthcare professionals and people with lived experience of cancer.
➡ March - British Society for Integrative Oncology (BSIO) Annual Conference 2023 took place online with great feedback, alongside me juggling two back-to-back exams for MSc Precision Cancer Medicine and a separate PG Dip in Traditional Chinese Medicine Acupuncture (this was an interesting month!). Dr Penny and I have been Co-Chairs of BSIO for the last two years from 2021 to 2023, helping develop the organisation alongside our colleagues at the BSIO Executive Committee and Council. You can read our brief reflections on the evolution of BSIO as the leading professional association for integrative oncology in the UK here. We are delighted that one of our own amazing staff members, Aga Kehinde, has stepped up as the next BSIO Co-Chair, leading the organisation with Dr Carol Granger PhD.
➡ April-May - these two months were very busy with the continuation of the Oncio app development and beta-testing and the SIO Cyprus workshop on ‘Research and Training Tools for Enhancing and Strengthening Integrative Oncology in Cyprus and Other European Union Countries’. It was an amazing opportunity to meet many global and European integrative oncology leaders, and I was delighted to present the UK perspective on ‘Global integrative oncology research – learning from each other‘. I also thoroughly enjoyed speaking at the online BANT AGM and Conference 2023 ‘Integrative Oncology: Evidence-Based Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine‘ organised by the Nutritional Medicine Institute (NMI). My talk on ‘Multidisciplinary integration in practice – dynamic alignment for better outcomes‘ drew on our practical experiences at Synthesis Clinic in managing a multidisciplinary integrative cancer care team and collaborating with multiple external stakeholders, from leading oncology consultants and GPs to a diverse group of allied healthcare professionals.
➡ June - the whirlwind of the Oncio app launch, mistletoe integrative oncology workshop and co-presentation on ‘Integrative Oncology - Supporting Living Well with Cancer’ with the wonderful Dr Deepak Ravindran at the IPM Congress 2023 in London in the integrative oncology stream chaired by the lovely Julia Bradbury. Many thanks to Korina Karadimou and Emma Higginson for doing a fantastic job in preparation for launch and to all the amazing Oncio team supporters, including the lovely Vicky Fox, Rosamund Dean, Marcia Mercier, Aga Kehinde, Dr Cheryl Cross and many more!
➡ July-August - two busy writing months for the MSc Precision Cancer Medicine dissertation for the University of Oxford and the ‘Integrative Oncology in Breast Cancer Care‘ book with Dr Penny (due to be published March 2024). All this typing away was followed by a great 2-week trip to the southern hemisphere to relax with family, a great pre-planned break away from computers, work and study. One of the key events in August 2023 was the publication of the SIO-ASCO guideline on ‘Integrative Oncology Care of Symptoms of Anxiety and Depression in Adults With Cancer’, which I was delighted to be a co-author on. Guidelines take a long time to come to fruition, and this was a culmination of a nearly 2-year international project under strong leadership from the two guideline co-chairs. You can find an easy guideline summary flowchart here.
➡ September-October - wonderful trips to Canada for Society for Integrative Oncology (SIO) 2023 conference and to Rome for WCIMH/ICIM congress for another Oncio poster presentation, followed by the Synthesis Clinic team retreat at 42 Acres. I was also delighted to receive distinction awards for both Oxford MSc Precision Cancer Medicine and the MATCM PG Dip in TCM Acupuncture after two years of hard work on both of these degrees.
➡ November - a fascinating trip to Korea to speak on Helixor mistletoe therapy and meet one of my amazing colleagues, Prof Seong Woo Yoon, researching Traditional Korean Medicine in integrative oncology. Prof Yoon was an incredible host, and I hope to make it back to South Korea in the future. November also saw the arrival of our wonderful Oncotherm (modulated electrohyperthermia) device, which we are delighted to be using in clinic at the moment.
➡ December - integrative oncology workshop for BSc Oncology students at Imperial College London, including perspectives from two of my wonderful patients, staff expansion and a lovely new Practice Manager, and last but not least, the new website for the Synthesis Clinic. We have also been hard at work on integrative oncology paper submissions with my Synthesis Clinic colleague, Dr Emma Davies, and a leading medical oncology consultant in breast and gynaecological cancers, Dr Jonathan Krell. Watch this space for publication announcements and the book launch news in 2024!
Over 2023 I was also grateful to have several podcast opportunities with wonderful hosts, two great cohorts of nutrition professionals and physicians trained on my 2023 Systems Approach to Cancer Programmes and many hours with my incredible patients at Synthesis Clinic who are the reason I do what I do. Ultimately, as I often say to my 10-year-old daughter, when faced with something we feel is not right in this world, we have two choices - accept or change (ranting without action does not help anyone, so it is not an option). Since I cannot accept the suffering that arises because the current healthcare model is simply not working, I have chosen to dedicate my professional life to changing the world of women’s health and cancer care, with a particular focus on making integrative oncology a part of standard of care for anyone affected by cancer. Seeing this as my ikigai, I have to work hard on multiple fronts to be able to deliver this agenda and desired improvements for our community in the long term. I am deeply grateful to all my patients for the privilege I have in partnering with them in their care at the most difficult times of their lives, and I will continue to learn from each and every person I look after and to leverage my broad precision health and integrative medicine toolkit to support both my patients, my multidisciplinary practice team and integrative oncology community.
So what are my 2024 aspirations? We will continue to grow and expand Synthesis Clinic, with some very exciting medium and long-term plans coming up, as well as publishing and presenting clinical data from our award-winning multidisciplinary precision women’s health and integrative oncology practice based in the UK. I look forward to finishing the PG Dip Health Research at the University of Oxford by the end of 2024 (taking a course break after all this!) and enjoying assimilating diverse educational strands in my clinical practice and education initiatives. Alongside the March book publication of ‘Integrative Oncology in Breast Cancer Care’ co-authored with the amazing Dr Penny Kechagioglou, I will be working on co-creating an online MSc/PG Dip in Integrative Cancer Care in the UK with my colleagues at BSIO and beyond. I will also be supporting the SIO 2024 Conference as a member of the Conference Education Committee and continuing to engage with the SIO Global, Education and Advancement Committees and Yoga and Acupuncture SIGs (Special Interest Groups).
After a busy 2023, I am enjoying spending time with my family (including Luna, the cheeky Labrador) and reading a few non-medical books. I hope you are all having a restorative holiday season where possible, and here’s to a nourishing and impactful 2024!
About the author
Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel is an award-winning Oxbridge-trained integrative medicine doctor, scientist, and educator with over a decade’s experience in integrative healthcare. Dr Fuller-Shavel is a Fellow of the College of Medicine, the British Association for Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine (BANT) and the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel was the Co-Chair of BSIO (British Society for Integrative Oncology) over 2021-2023 and now co-chairs the BSIO Education Committee. Dr Fuller-Shavel has obtained three Oxbridge degrees as a part of her scientific and medical training. Alongside this, Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel holds multiple qualifications in nutrition, integrative medicine, functional medicine, health coaching, herbal medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), yoga, mindfulness, and other therapeutic approaches. Dr Fuller-Shavel is a co-author of ‘Integrative Oncology in Breast Cancer Care’ with Dr Penny Kechagioglou, a book for healthcare professionals due to be published in 2024.
Dr Nina Fuller-Shavel is the founder and Director of Synthesis Clinic, an award-winning multidisciplinary practice in the UK, specialising in women’s health and integrative cancer care. Alongside her clinical work, Dr Fuller-Shavel delivers educational programmes, participates in research in integrative medicine and precision health and contributes to scientific journal editorial boards and guideline development panels nationally and internationally. Finally, Dr Fuller-Shavel is the Co-Founder and Director of Oncio CIC, an innovative non-profit aimed at providing high quality app-based resources for people affected by cancer.