Journal launch enables oncology education and quality improvement
December 18, 2025
Medically Reviewed | Last reviewed by Shalin Shah, M.D., on December 18, 2025
How do you make your work more efficient without reinventing the wheel?
That’s what radiation oncologist Shalin Shah, M.D., was trying to figure out: was there a way to help improve wellness in his area by reducing inefficient processes in the clinic? Could he connect with others who were working on process improvement and apply what they’d learned to his own team?
Since he works at MD Anderson in Sugar Land full-time, he knew he was less likely to come across projects from other clinical locations by happenstance.
“I couldn’t find any central repository for improvement projects, but I knew they were happening,” he says. “I asked our librarians if there’d be interest in a collection of process improvement projects and learned they were working on something even bigger.”
A first-of-its-kind journal
Shah joined with our Research Medical Library and Education and Alumni Relations teams to help form MD Anderson’s first academic journal, Advances in Cancer Education and Quality Improvement (ACE-QI). He serves as deputy editor-in-chief and has seen first-hand the great work happening in different departments across MD Anderson, as well as from multidisciplinary teams across the country.
“ACE-QI shows the possibilities we have at MD Anderson when we combine our expertise for something greater,” Shah says. “Between our invaluable librarians and expert editorial board, we created the first journal of its kind from a comprehensive cancer center.”
ACE-QI’s first issue by the numbers
- 19 articles published in the first issue, submitted by 131 authors from 14 institutions
- 43 peer reviewers helped review and approve articles for publication
- Readers from 131 countries
Widespread impact
ACE-QI launched in May 2025 to rave reviews. Articles were downloaded from more than 130 countries, bringing the expertise of our faculty, nurses, pharmacists and more to a global audience. Unique among academic journals, ACE-QI doesn’t charge a fee to read the articles or to submit a manuscript for consideration.
There’s huge enthusiasm to have projects featured in ACE-QI where they can be seen by a wide audience, Shah notes. And with the library providing coaching for first-time authors, high-quality projects and information can now be shared on a global scale.
“I’m proud so many new authors have published their work in ACE-QI,” Shah says. “There’s excitement to seeing your work shared widely, and also a very real possibility that your transformative project will make a big difference to someone else who adapts your work to help their own team.”
Read MD Anderson’s academic journal at our Research Medical Library.
ACE-QI shows the possibilities we have at MD Anderson when we combine our expertise for something greater.
Shalin Shah, M.D.
Physician