A new medical head of cancer services has been appointed at the Bermuda Hospitals Board.Full-time oncologist, Dr Paul Coty will be the medical lead for Cancer services at BHB and joins the BHB Cancer Care team, comprising part time Oncologist Dr Tutu Aung-Hillman; Oncology Nurses, Karen Scott and Jennifer Gallo; Oncology Clinical Supervisor, Michelle Sampson and Administrative Assistant, Evelyn Minors.Dr Coty’s responsibilities will include consulting with cancer patients in Bermuda and overseeing their care, working with healthcare partners here and overseas, and developing cancer services on-island. He will report to the Chief of Medicine, Dr Keith Chiappa.He said: “I am pleased to be joining the Cancer Care team at BHB and look forward to meeting with patients and helping them through their cancer treatment. I took great pride in creating a medical oncology programme in Maui and am looking forward to working with my BHB colleagues, partners, patients and families to ensure a stable and high quality service here in Bermuda.”Dr Chiappa added: “I am extremely pleased to welcome Dr Coty to BHB. As cancer patients and their families in Bermuda are aware, over the last few years we have been working hard to appoint a full time, high quality Oncologist.“The global shortage of specialists in this area has made it especially challenging. While we are very grateful for the assistance from our partner hospitals in maintaining cancer services in Bermuda during this recruitment period, we know that the service requires a full time oncologist. It gives us great pleasure to appoint someone with Dr Coty’s expertise, who is also used to the challenges of delivering a high quality specialist service in an island setting.”Dr Coty is Board Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Medical Oncology and Hematology and joins BHB after eight years working as a Hematologist/Oncologist in Maui, first at Hawaii Kaiser Permanente and finally for a short period as a Locum at the Pacific Cancer Institute.He originally moved to Hawaii in 2003 to establish a full time oncology department on the island of Maui for Hawaii Kaiser Permanente. In this role, Dr Coty ran the outpatient clinic, the infusion centre and oversaw care at the sole hospital on Maui, the Maui Memorial Medical Centre. In addition, he facilitated collaboration with the Hawaii Kaiser surgical, medical subspecialty, radiology and pathology departments and established a standard of care based on the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines. He also assisted primary care physicians with patient diagnostic evaluations, family concerns and end of life issues.