Head & Neck Program | Health Professionals

The University of Calgary Head and Neck Surgical Oncology team is a comprehensive team of surgeons and scientists that work together to perform major head and neck resections and microvascular reconstructions. These surgeries are clinically complex, resource-intensive, and significantly impact a patient's quality of life.

Our team has worked together for over five years to streamline the post-operative period after having major head and neck cancer resection and free flap reconstruction. The development of this pathway has brought together surgeons from various disciplines to work toward one common goal: to improve healthcare delivery to this complex group of patients. The pathway outlines the checkpoints and milestones that patients are expected to meet each subsequent day after their major surgery. It has resulted in significant improvements in patient outcomes, with decreased complications and decreased health care costs. This pathway has also allowed for the consolidation of resources and personnel, eliminating redundancies within the system. This pathway has been met with critical acclaim and has gained momentum at the level of the Cancer Strategic Clinical Network - AHS. The pathway is being adopted provincially and is a model for creating future pathways in other surgical disciplines.

The following article was published by a member of the surgical team. It outlines the various ways head and neck cancer may present and the red flag symptoms.

The Oral and Dental Care Management in Head and Neck Cancer Guideline provides recommendations before, during, and after cancer treatment.

Alberta Health Services has endorsed several treatment guidelines published by the provincial Head and Neck Tumor Group. These guidelines outline the organization and delivery of health care services for patients with head and neck cancer. Further, the group has published treatment guidelines for several sub-sites of head and neck cancer.

Members of our surgery team are active researchers in the area of head and neck cancer, and they regularly publish their findings. Please visit the team page on our website and review member profiles to learn more about their specific research areas.