Robert Olson

Associate Professor

Research Classification

Radiotherapy
Head and Neck Cancer
Breast Cancer
Lung Cancer
Epidemiology
Community Health / Public Health
Social Determinants of Cancer

Research Interests

patient reported outcomes
health services delivery
stereotactic radiotherapy
Clinical trials

Relevant Degree Programs

View all programs

Research Options

I am interested in and conduct interdisciplinary research.
 
 

Open All

Research Methodology

clinical trials
patient reported outcomes
Epidemiology

Recruitment

Master's students
Doctoral students
2021

1) Clinical trials assessing stereotactic radiotherapy in the setting of metastatic disease 2) Population-level collection and use of patient reported outcomes to improve care and guide comparative effectiveness research 3) Assessing interventions to impact prescribing practices of oncologists

I support public scholarship, e.g. through the Public Scholars Initiative, and am available to supervise students and Postdocs interested in collaborating with external partners as part of their research.
I am interested in hiring Co-op students for research placements.
I am interested in supervising students to conduct interdisciplinary research.

Complete these steps before you reach out to a faculty member!

Check requirements
  • Familiarize yourself with program requirements. You want to learn as much as possible from the information available to you before you reach out to a faculty member. Be sure to visit the graduate degree program listing and program-specific websites.
  • Check whether the program requires you to seek commitment from a supervisor prior to submitting an application. For some programs this is an essential step while others match successful applicants with faculty members within the first year of study. This is either indicated in the program profile under "Admission Information & Requirements" - "Prepare Application" - "Supervision" or on the program website.
Focus your search
  • Identify specific faculty members who are conducting research in your specific area of interest.
  • Establish that your research interests align with the faculty member’s research interests.
    • Read up on the faculty members in the program and the research being conducted in the department.
    • Familiarize yourself with their work, read their recent publications and past theses/dissertations that they supervised. Be certain that their research is indeed what you are hoping to study.
Make a good impression
  • Compose an error-free and grammatically correct email addressed to your specifically targeted faculty member, and remember to use their correct titles.
    • Do not send non-specific, mass emails to everyone in the department hoping for a match.
    • Address the faculty members by name. Your contact should be genuine rather than generic.
  • Include a brief outline of your academic background, why you are interested in working with the faculty member, and what experience you could bring to the department. The supervision enquiry form guides you with targeted questions. Ensure to craft compelling answers to these questions.
  • Highlight your achievements and why you are a top student. Faculty members receive dozens of requests from prospective students and you may have less than 30 seconds to pique someone’s interest.
  • Demonstrate that you are familiar with their research:
    • Convey the specific ways you are a good fit for the program.
    • Convey the specific ways the program/lab/faculty member is a good fit for the research you are interested in/already conducting.
  • Be enthusiastic, but don’t overdo it.
Attend an information session

G+PS regularly provides virtual sessions that focus on admission requirements and procedures and tips how to improve your application.

 

Supervision Enquiry

If you have reviewed some of this faculty member's publications, understand their research interests and have reviewed the admission requirements, you may submit a contact request to this supervisor.

Graduate Student Supervision

Master's Student Supervision (2010 - 2018)
Population-based assessment of relationship between volume of practice and outcomes in head and neck cancer patients (2017)

Background and Purpose: Recent literature has suggested that higher volumes of practice areassociated with better survival outcomes for head and neck cancer (HNC) patients. However,these studies are limited by looking at the volume of practice on a cancer centre level (i.e. notprovider level), and include jurisdictions without central coordination and specialized HNCtumor group support. The objective of this thesis was to evaluate the effect of treatment centre onthe overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific survival (CSS) of HNC patients in BritishColumbia in a provincially coordinated program.Methods: The BC Cancer Registry (BCCR), a population-based provincial database, was used toidentify all patients in BC diagnosed for the first time with a primary non-thyroid HNC andtreated with radiotherapy between 2006 and 2011. Patients were categorized as residing in large,small and rural local health authorities (LHAs) using BC Stats and BC Ministry of Healthinformation. Physician case frequency was defined as low (0-14 cases per year), medium (15-29cases per year) and high (>30 cases per year). There was no effect on OS or head and neck CSSwhen physician case frequency was treated as a continuous variable.Results: 2,330 HNC patients were included in the study. On multivariable analysis, aftercontrolling for age, gender, cancer stage, anatomical site, treatment and physician casefrequency, neither head and neck CSS (HNCSS) (HR range=0.86-1.03; p=0.54-0.99) nor OS(HR range=0.91-1.05; p=0.60-0.88) was significantly different by centre. OS was also notsignificantly different for patients treated by physicians with low case frequency (HR=0.96;0.81-1.13; p=0.60) and medium case frequency (HR=1.12; 0.84-1.49; p=0.43) in reference tohigh case frequency. Conclusions: There was no significant difference in survival among BC cancer centres aftercontrolling for differences in rurality, physician case volume and other potential confoundingvariables. This lack of difference may be in large part due to the centrally coordinatedpopulation-run program where radiation oncologists subspecialize, follow provincial guidelines,attend multidisciplinary rounds, have access to radiotherapy quality assurance, and are supportedby a HNC tumor group.

View record

Publications

Prospective Student Info Sessions

Faculty of Medicine Information Session

Date: Tuesday, 08 December 2020
Time: 11:00 to 12:00
UBC’s Faculty of Medicine is a global leader in both the science and the practice of medicine, and is home to more than 1,700 graduate students across over 20 graduate programs. In this session hosted by Dr Michael Hunt, Associate Dean, Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, we’ll provide an overview of the diverse array of graduate programs available, including cutting-edge research experiences in the biosciences, globally recognized population health education, quality health professional training, as well as certificate and online training options. Dr Hunt will also be joined by program advisors from across the faculty to take an inside look at the application process and provide some application tips to help make your application as strong as possible.
Register
 
Robert Olson's Profile
Publications on Google Scholar
ORCID Profile
Other link
Supervision Enquiry

Membership Status

Partner appointment
View explanation of statuses

Location

Northern Medical Program - Prince George

Program Affiliations

Interdisciplinary Oncology

Department(s)

Department of Surgery
 

If this is your researcher profile you can log in to the Faculty & Staff portal to update your details and provide recruitment preferences.

 
 

Learn about our faculties, research, and more than 300 programs in our 2021 Graduate Viewbook!

Download your copy