Meet Dr. Jaroslav Prchal

New consent form enhances patient involvement in their care
RCN Clinical Lead, Dr. Jaroslav (Jeff) Prchal
The new interim clinical lead of the RCN

When Dr. Jaroslav (Jeff) Prchal sees a car with a bumper sticker that proudly reads: This car climbed Mount Washington, he’s not impressed. That’s because the avid hiker has climbed the ‘hill’ over 100 times without the help of an 8-cyclinder engine.  That is 13 to 16 kilometers straight up and down over rugged, rocky, muddy and slippery when wet, and steep terrain. Dr. Prchal says the climb simply makes him feel good. The diagnosis: the feelings of elation are due to a flood of endorphins.

Dr. Prchal, the head of the Oncology Department at St. Mary’s Hospital Center (SMHC) is taking on another challenge. He’s been appointed interim Clinical Lead of the Rossy Cancer Network (RCN) and Associate Chair of the McGill Department of Oncology for six months. “I have a very short mandate, which is forcing me to concentrate my efforts,” he quips.

His goal is to get the RCN partner hospitals – the SMHC, Jewish General Hospital and McGill University Health Centre – to further develop cancer-specific tumour boards as one of the important tools to improve the quality of patient care. “Every patient with cancer should be presented at tumour boards and have the trajectory of the cancer management determined prior to specific treatments being initiated,” he says.

“Tumour boards are an interdisciplinary and in some cases multi-institutional meeting of medical, surgical and radiation oncologists, as well as nurses, pathologists, imaging specialists, social workers and others who come together to discuss patient cases and to decide on the best treatment strategy,” says Dr. Prchal. “The added benefit of these meetings is to drive innovation and change and to shape new models of cancer care.  By encouraging multi-institutional tumour boards, we’ll harmonize the care across the network and establish McGill standards for cancer care.”

Dr. Prchal realizes getting everyone committed to this plan won’t be easy, but he’s confident all will come together to achieve this important goal. “I’ve been around a long time and I’ve worked with many of the fellow oncologists and members of the cancer teams at all three of the RCN partner hospitals, and I have started to meet with my colleagues to talk about establishing cancer-specific tumour boards to get them on board.” 

Dr. Prchal is used to getting in on the ground floor of projects. In the early 90s, he moved from the Royal Victoria Hospital to the SMHC where he helped build the Oncology Department that he continues to lead.

“Jeff is a great leader who impresses by his power of persuasion, calm demeanour, and ability to reconcile opposing views and foster consensus,” says Professor Eduardo Franco, Chair of the McGill Department of Oncology. “His administrative acumen, privileged understanding of the medical "culture" at McGill and excellent rapport with the Quebec oncology community are valuable assets that he brings to this initiative and our department. I look forward to working with Jeff in advancing our mission.”

From Europe to Canada

Born in Czechoslovakia, Dr. Prchal attended Charles University in Prague, receiving his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1964. When the Russians invaded in 1968, he moved to Dalhousie University, then University of Toronto and University of Washington to pursue post doctorate research. Dr. Prchal’s main research interests include bone marrow disorders, specifically chronic myeloproliferative neoplasms, diseases of the blood and bone marrow. His work has been published in journals such as Blood, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Nature and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Dr. Prchal closed his research lab in the 90’s to focus on clinical care and administration, but his brother Dr. Josef Prchal, with the University of Utah Health Centre, continues to move the research forward. 

Medicine seems to be part of the Prchal family’s genetic make-up. His dad was a surgeon. He and his brother became doctors. Dr. Prchal has five children two of which have also gone into the ‘family business.’ His son is a nephrologist practicing in Vancouver and his daughter teaches nursing at Champlain College.  He has one daughter who is a linguist and two other daughters who have dedicated their careers to athletics.  Dr. Prchal lost his wife to lung cancer a number of years ago.

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