Blase Polite, MD

Blase N. Polite, MD, MPP, FASCO, is Associate Professor of Medicine; Deputy Section Chief for Clinical Operations and Executive Medical Director for Cancer Accountable Care at the University of Chicago, where he currently oversees the negotiations and implementation of several alternative payment models for the cancer center. He is Past-Chair of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Health Disparities Committee and a two-time chair of the ASCO Government Relations Committee (GRC). He is a graduate of ASCO’s Leadership Development Program, a recipient of an ASCO Career Development Award (CDA), and was named a Fellow of the Society in 2018. He is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Oncology Practice. Dr. Polite is an active practicing GI oncologist, specializing in the treatment of patients with colorectal and anal cancer. He received a distinguished clinician award from the Biologic Science Division faculty and distinguished teaching award from the oncology fellows.

During his tenure on the ASCO GRC, Dr. Polite helped lead the rapid growth in ASCO’s advocacy efforts where ASCO was intimately involved in the development and implementation of MACRA and the 21st Century Cures Act. He also helped lead the rapid expansion of ASCO’s state advocacy efforts. He serves on the ASCO alternative payment models and value based care taskforces, where he helped lead the development of a cancer Alternative Payment Model being submitted for consideration by the Physician-Focused Payment Model Technical Advisory Committee (PTAC) established under MACRA. He has been a lead author on several important ASCO policy statements related to drug pricing, health reform policy, Medicaid policy, and 340B system reform. He also led a multi-organization work group of AACR, ACS, NCI, and ASCO to produce and simultaneous publish in all the organization’s major journals a statement about the future of health disparities research.

Dr. Polite earned his Bachelor and Master’s degree in Public Policy Studies from the University of Chicago, and previously served with the Department of Health and Human Services as well as with the Office of Senator Bill Bradley in Washington, DC, on dedicated efforts directed at healthcare and Medicare reform policy. He received his MD from Indiana University and later completed his training in Internal Medicine and medical oncology at the University of Chicago.