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The profound and impactful work Keri Maher, D.O., leads today began before she fully understood what health care access truly meant.

“I grew up in a very rural area, where the nearest hospital was 45 minutes away and the closest academic medical center was more than two hours away,” she shared. “Few people in my community pursued higher education. It was largely a farming region.”

The consequences of limited health care access became even more personal when cancer hit close to home.

“While I was in college, my high school sweetheart was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia and ultimately passed away, primarily because he was treated at a small community hospital that lacked the necessary expertise to manage his condition,” said Maher, a hematologist and clinical scientist at VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center. “That experience had a profound impact on me and became the driving force behind my commitment to improving access to high-quality care for all populations.”

In these rural areas, cancer incidence and mortality rates are generally higher than in urban parts of the state. Maher recognizes that improving outcomes for these patients requires more than just medical innovation, stating, "We need to find a way to get this care into the communities themselves, starting with the education of the physicians and the patients. It's about bridging the gap between comprehensive cancer care and rural communities."

Maher conducts extensive work in managing clinical trials for acute myeloid leukemia (AML), which has a relatively low five-year survival rate of about 32%. Most patients who go into remission are typically recommended to receive a bone marrow transplant to improve their chances of a cure. But, as Maher points out, “Unfortunately, many patients or those affected by social determinants of health are not able to undergo transplant. It might be due to a lack of a donor, limited social support, inadequate insurance or other barriers.”

Understanding this, Maher mentioned, “My trials are specifically designed for patients who should have gone to transplant but were not able to, addressing a population of AML patients that currently have no trials available to them.”

Regarding one of her key investigator-initiated trials, the REMAIN series: Reimagining Maintenance Therapies in Transplant-Eligible AML, she noted, “The first trial, REMAIN 1, focuses on a maintenance strategy using oral azacitidine for AML patients who are unable to proceed to transplant. REMAIN 1 is currently open, actively enrolling patients and accruing data. The follow-up trial, REMAIN 2, builds on that foundation. Its protocol has been developed, it has secured pharmaceutical funding, and it is currently moving through FDA regulatory review.”

In addition, Maher is currently building the Acute Leukemia Virginia Consortium with partners at Massey and UVA Health, along with collaborators from other major institutions across the state. She hopes that patients in resource-limited areas will one day be able to access comprehensive, high-quality cancer care directly in their own communities.

"This isn't just a job for me; this is my life's work. I am blessed to be here, working toward improving access to care for populations in need," Maher explained. “I saw patient after patient who I couldn’t get to transplant, and then I had to watch them relapse and pass away. That’s why I focus on this specific population.”

Maher perceives the need to extend subspecialty-level cancer care to rural communities, not just by bringing patients to academic centers, but by bringing the care closer to where people live. “The solution to this is partnership,” she shared.

As a result, Maher is working with an oncology nonprofit, Binaytara, to further bridge the gap between oncologists at academic institutions and those in community practices. In collaboration with Indumathy Varadarajan, M.D., at UVA Health, Maher co-chairs the Virginia Hematology Conference, which brings together local health care professionals to learn practical strategies for delivering patient-centered care.

Maher expressed, “I want people from all areas, all practice settings and all specialties to be in the same room, so we can have these conversations together. Just by talking with each other, we can share perspectives and increase our collective knowledge.”

Her leadership at this continuing medical education event reflects her deep commitment to fostering collaboration, not only between institutions but also among health care professionals, to identify and scale best practices for improving care in all populations.

Massey shares this vision and prioritizes reaching communities with high cancer burdens and persistent disparities. Much of the cancer center’s community-focused work includes mobile health vans, community champion initiatives, catchment area data analytics, community-based grant programs, and partnerships with local leaders and organizations.

As Maher emphasized, “I am fortunate to be at VCU Massey, which is led by Dr. Robert Winn, a visionary with a magnetic personality who has truly transformed the center over the past four years. My division chief, Dr. Renato Martins, has also been incredibly supportive. Both of them are deeply committed to clinical trials, and reducing the cancer burden for all Virginians, not just in words, but in action. Under their leadership, I have had the freedom and support to grow my work. Massey has become a true champion for bridging the gap between academic medicine and rural communities.”