Phyllis Gapen

PHYLLIS GAPEN was a Houston-based journalist who survived breast cancer for twenty-four years. She worked to help generate a vision of how new technology, clinical research, creatively organized medical care, and human compassion can push forward science and medical practice. For more than fifteen years, Phyllis worked with a university team whose engineers helped build advanced Internets for educational and research efforts in Texas. Among other things, that work improved the commodity...See more

PHYLLIS GAPEN was a Houston-based journalist who survived breast cancer for twenty-four years. She worked to help generate a vision of how new technology, clinical research, creatively organized medical care, and human compassion can push forward science and medical practice. For more than fifteen years, Phyllis worked with a university team whose engineers helped build advanced Internets for educational and research efforts in Texas. Among other things, that work improved the commodity Internet used by the public. These efforts enabled better transmission of sound and pictures over the Internet, eliminating jerky movements in video playback, and paving the way for popular sites such as YouTube. Better networks also assisted health care professionals in bring- ing innovations to the practice of medicine. The video-based breast cancer website Breast Cancer Answers is just one example of such advances. During her career, Phyllis published more than 100 articles in national publications, including The Wall Street Journal. She edited three books, and her work has been cited in fifteen books on health and science policy. Phyllis often wrote about groups of patients who have difficulty advocating for themselves. She dreamed of a time when cancer therapies would be less toxic, and large numbers of patients would go on to live long, productive lives. See less