Research Summary

Dr. Hong is Assistant Professor and Medical Director of Radiation Oncology Informatics in the Department of Radiation Oncology and the Bakar Computational Health Sciences Institute at the University of California, San Francisco, and in the UCSF-UC Berkeley Joint Program in Computational Precision Health. Clinically, he specializes in the treatment of genitourinary malignancies.

Dr. Hong’s informatics research program focuses on the development and implementation of computational tools in the clinic to provide personalized, precision cancer care for patients. His group combines clinical domain knowledge with data science expertise to generate insights from real world data, develop actionable artificial intelligence-based tools, and evaluate the benefit of these advances in patient care. He led one of the first randomized controlled studies of clinical machine learning, developing an electronic health record-based algorithm that accurately directed care to reduce emergency visits and hospitalizations during radiotherapy.

Dr. Hong received his B.S. in Biomedical Computation and M.S. in Bioengineering from Stanford University. He completed medical school at the University of Wisconsin and residency in radiation oncology at Duke University, where he served as Chief Resident. Dr. Hong is board certified in both radiation oncology and clinical informatics. Dr. Hong serves on the NRG Cancer Care Delivery Research Committee and is an American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) representative for the American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) Big Data Subcommittee. He is a member of the Minimal Common Oncology Data Elements (mCODE) Council, the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Annual Symposium and Informatics Summit Scientific Program Committees, and the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) CancerLinQ Leadership Council.

Dr. Hong’s research has been published in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Clinical Oncology and JAMA Oncology. His work has been recognized with the Radiation Oncology Institute (ROI) Publication Award, Bio-IT World Innovative Practices Award, and the Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Learning Health Systems New England Journal of Medicine Travel Award.

Research Funding

  • March 1, 2023 - February 29, 2028 - Multi-institutional validation of a multi-modal machine learning algorithm to predict and reduce acute care during cancer therapy , . Sponsor: NIH/NCI, Sponsor Award ID: R01CA277782
  • March 1, 2023 - March 25, 2027 - Diagnostic tools for quality improvement of machine learning-based clinical decision support systems , . Sponsor: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), Sponsor Award ID: Improving Methods for Conducting Patient-Centered
  • September 6, 2022 - September 5, 2024 - Advancing the Drug Development Process in Metastatic Prostate Cancer through Machine Learning , . Sponsor: Prostate Cancer Foundation, Sponsor Award ID: 22CHAS02
  • July 1, 2021 - June 30, 2024 - Artificial intelligence approaches for the diagnosis and treatment of oligometastatic prostate cancer , Principal Investigator . Sponsor: ASTRO-PCF, Sponsor Award ID: Career Development Award to End Prostate Cancer

Education

Stanford University, Stanford, CA, BS, 06/2008, Biomedical Computation
Stanford University, Stanford, CA, MS, 06/2009, Bioengineering
University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI, MD, 05/2014, Medicine
Yale-New Haven Medical Center, New Haven/Waterbury, CT, Internship, 06/2015, Internal Medicine
Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, Residency, 06/2019, Radiation Oncology

Honors & Awards

  • 2021
    Bio-IT World Conference & Expo Innovative Practices Award, Cambridge Healthtech Institute
  • 2021
    Publication Award, Radiation Oncology Institute
  • 2021
    Annual Symposium Distinguished Poster, American Medical Informatics Association
  • 2020
    New England Journal of Medicine Travel Scholarship, Symposium on Artificial Intelligence for Learning Health Systems
  • 2018
    3rd Place, Google Kaggle NCAA March Madness Machine Learning Competition
  • 2014
    Dylan Cappel Memorial Scholarship in Oncology, University of Wisconsin
  • 2012
    Herman and Gwendolyn Shapiro Excellence in Student Research Award, University of Wisconsin
  • 2011
    Excellence in Radiology Research Award, National Student Research Forum
  • 2009
    Excellence in Science Award, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Selected Publications

  1. Sinha S, Holmgren AJ, Hong JC, Rotenstein LS. Ctrl-C: A Cross-Sectional Study of the EHR Usage Patterns of US Oncology Clinicians. JNCI Cancer Spectr. 2023 Sep 09.  View on PubMed
  2. Waters M, Aneja S, Hong J. Unlocking the Power of ChatGPT, Artificial Intelligence, and Large Language Models: Practical Suggestions for Radiation Oncologists. Pract Radiat Oncol. 2023 Aug 18.  View on PubMed
  3. Sabbagh A, Tilki D, Feng J, Huland H, Graefen M, Wiegel T, Böhmer D, Hong JC, Valdes G, Cowan JE, Cooperberg M, Feng FY, Mohammad T, Shelan M, D'Amico AV, Carroll PR, Mohamad O. Multi-institutional Development and External Validation of a Machine Learning Model for the Prediction of Distant Metastasis in Patients Treated by Salvage Radiotherapy for Biochemical Failure After Radical Prostatectomy. Eur Urol Focus. 2023 Jul 26.  View on PubMed
  4. Moreno A, Solanki AA, Xu T, Lin R, Palta J, Daugherty E, Hong D, Hong J, Kamran SC, Katsoulakis E, Brock K, Feng M, Fuller C, Mayo C, BDSC Prostate Cancer Consortium. Identification of Key Elements in Prostate Cancer for Ontology Building via a Multidisciplinary Consensus Agreement. Cancers (Basel). 2023 06 08; 15(12).  View on PubMed
  5. Mayo CS, Feng MU, Brock KK, Kudner R, Balter P, Buchsbaum JC, Caissie A, Covington E, Daugherty EC, Dekker AL, Fuller CD, Hallstrom AL, Hong DS, Hong JC, Kamran SC, Katsoulakis E, Kildea J, Krauze AV, Kruse JJ, McNutt T, Mierzwa M, Moreno A, Palta JR, Popple R, Purdie TG, Richardson S, Sharp GC, Shiraishi S, Tarbox L, Venkatesan AM, Witztum A, Woods KE, Yao J, Farahani K, Aneja S, Gabriel PE, Hadjiiski L, Ruan D, Siewerdsen JH, Bratt S, Casagni M, Chen S, Christodouleas J, DiDonato A, Hayman J, Kapoor R, Kravitz S, Sebastian S, Von Siebenthal M, Xiao Y. Operational Ontology for Oncology (O3) - A Professional Society Based, Multi-Stakeholder, Consensus Driven Informatics Standard Supporting Clinical and Research use of "Real -World" Data from Patients Treated for Cancer: Operational Ontology for Radiation Oncology. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys. 2023 May 25.  View on PubMed
  6. Jindal T, Zhang L, Deshmukh P, Reyes K, Chan E, Kumar V, Zhu X, Maldonado E, Feng S, Johnson M, Angelidakis A, Kwon D, Desai A, Borno HT, Bose R, Wong A, Hong J, Carroll P, Meng M, Porten S, Aggarwal R, Small EJ, Fong L, Chou J, Friedlander T, de Kouchkovsky I, Koshkin VS. Impact of Squamous Histology on Clinical Outcomes and Molecular Profiling in Metastatic Urothelial Carcinoma Patients Treated With Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors or Enfortumab Vedotin. Clin Genitourin Cancer. 2023 10; 21(5):e394-e404.  View on PubMed
  7. Carpenter DJ, Leng J, Arshad M, Giles W, Kirkpatrick JP, Floyd SR, Chmura SJ, Salama JK, Hong JC. Intracranial and Extracranial Progression and Their Correlation With Overall Survival After Stereotactic Radiosurgery in a Multi-institutional Cohort With Brain Metastases. JAMA Netw Open. 2023 04 03; 6(4):e2310117.  View on PubMed
  8. Sabbagh A, Washington SL, Tilki D, Hong JC, Feng J, Valdes G, Chen MH, Wu J, Huland H, Graefen M, Wiegel T, Böhmer D, Cowan JE, Cooperberg M, Feng FY, Roach M, Trock BJ, Partin AW, D'Amico AV, Carroll PR, Mohamad O. Development and External Validation of a Machine Learning Model for Prediction of Lymph Node Metastasis in Patients with Prostate Cancer. Eur Urol Oncol. 2023 Mar 01.  View on PubMed
  9. Hong JC, Patel P, Eclov NCW, Stephens SJ, Mowery YM, Tenenbaum JD, Palta M. Healthcare provider evaluation of machine learning-directed care: reactions to deployment on a randomised controlled study. BMJ Health Care Inform. 2023 Feb; 30(1).  View on PubMed
  10. Ragavan MV, Legaspi N, LaLanne A, Hong JC, Small EJ, Borno HT. Analysis of Serious Adverse Event Reporting for Patients Enrolled in Cancer Clinical Trials During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA Oncol. 2022 12 01; 8(12):1849-1851.  View on PubMed
  11. Kwon DH, Shakhnazaryan N, Shui D, Hong JC, Mohamad O, de Kouchkovsky I, Borno HT, Bose R, Chou J, Desai A, Fong L, Friedlander TW, Koshkin VS, Aggarwal RR, Feng FY, Hope TA, Small EJ. Serial stereotactic body radiation therapy for oligometastatic prostate cancer detected by novel PET-based radiotracers. Urol Oncol. 2023 03; 41(3):145.e7-145.e15.  View on PubMed
  12. Borno HT, Kim MO, Tolstykh I, Lin A, Hong JC, Yousefi S, Zhang S, McKay RR, Harismendy O, Razavi P, Cinar P, Rugo H, Koshkin VS, Rabow M, Wang C, Bailey A, Small EJ. Assessing Unique Risk Factors for COVID-19 Complications Among Cancer Patients: A Multi-ethnic Cohort Study. J Immigr Minor Health. 2023 Jun; 25(3):624-633.  View on PubMed
  13. Carpenter DJ, Natarajan B, Arshad M, Natesan D, Schultz O, Moravan MJ, Read C, Lafata KJ, Giles W, Fecci P, Mullikin TC, Reitman ZJ, Kirkpatrick JP, Floyd SR, Chmura SJ, Hong JC, Salama JK. Prognostic Model for Intracranial Progression after Stereotactic Radiosurgery: A Multicenter Validation Study. Cancers (Basel). 2022 Oct 22; 14(21).  View on PubMed
  14. Abou Ziki MD, Taoutel R, Hong JC, Podell DN. Severe extra-glandular involvement and pleural effusions complicating primary Sjogren's syndrome: a case report. J Med Case Rep. 2022 Oct 18; 16(1):374.  View on PubMed
  15. Hong JC, Eclov NCW, Stephens SJ, Mowery YM, Palta M. Implementation of machine learning in the clinic: challenges and lessons in prospective deployment from the System for High Intensity EvaLuation During Radiation Therapy (SHIELD-RT) randomized controlled study. BMC Bioinformatics. 2022 Sep 30; 23(Suppl 12):408.  View on PubMed
  16. Zack T, Dhaliwal G, Geha R, Margaretten M, Murray S, Hong JC. A Clinical Reasoning-Encoded Case Library Developed through Natural Language Processing. J Gen Intern Med. 2023 01; 38(1):5-11.  View on PubMed
  17. Borno HT, Kim MO, Hong JC, Yousefi S, Lin A, Tolstykh I, Zhang S, McKay RR, Harismendy O, Cinar P, Rugo H, Koshkin VS, Rabow M, Wang C, Bailey A, Small EJ. COVID-19 Outcomes Among Patients With Cancer: Observations From the University of California Cancer Consortium COVID-19 Project Outcomes Registry. Oncologist. 2022 05 06; 27(5):398-406.  View on PubMed
  18. Huilgol YS, Adler-Milstein J, Ivey SL, Hong JC. Opportunities to use electronic health record audit logs to improve cancer care. Cancer Med. 2022 09; 11(17):3296-3303.  View on PubMed
  19. Kwon DH, Cadena J, Nguyen S, Chan KHR, Soper B, Gryshuk AL, Hong JC, Ray P, Huang FW. COVID-19 outcomes in patients with cancer: Findings from the University of California health system database. Cancer Med. 2022 06; 11(11):2204-2215.  View on PubMed
  20. Hong JC. Strategies to Turn Real-world Data Into Real-world Knowledge. JAMA Netw Open. 2021 10 01; 4(10):e2128045.  View on PubMed

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