Meetings with Featured Speakers

Medicare is often complex and confusing. HICAP offers one-on-one counseling to assist Medicare beneficiaries, their families; friends and caregivers understand their Medicare benefits and best healthcare options. 

HICAP is part of the national network of State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIP) and is the most dependable source of unbiased and accurate Medicare related information. We provide free, unbiased Medicare counseling and community education.

The Council on Aging’s HICAP counselors are trained California state-registered staff and volunteers.  HICAP does not sell, endorse, promote or recommend commercial insurance products or services.

The sequencing of the human genome has had a major impact in the treatment of many diseases.  We will discuss the impact of genetic technology in understanding and personalizing treatment for patients with prostate cancer.

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Dr. Mitchell Gross is the Senior Director, Clinical Translation Program at the Ellison Institute and an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC. His overall research interest focuses on applying modern techniques relating to the study of genes and proteins (genomics and proteomics) to the clinical problems faced in treating patients with prostate cancer. A particular interest relates to the androgen receptor and relating proteins and pathways as key driving forces behind the development and treatment of prostate cancer. As a medical oncologist, his clinical activities are focused on therapeutic clinical trials incorporating both molecularly targeted and conventional therapies to the care of patients with prostate cancer. He serves as primary investigator on many multi-center phase I and II clinical trials. Dr. Gross has earned degrees from the University of California, San Diego (BA), Baylor College of Medicine in Houston (MD), and the University of California, Los Angeles (PhD in Molecular Biology). He completed a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in hematology and medical oncology at the UCLA Center for the Health Sciences.

Dr. Shane Lloyd earned his bachelors degree in pharmacology and therapeutics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Dr. Lloyd completed his medical doctor (M.D.) degree at The Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. He concurrently completed his Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Cellular and Molecular Biology, studying the effects of radiation on the musculoskeletal system. Dr. Lloyd went on to complete a medicine internship at Bassett Medical Center in New York, as well as his Radiation Oncology residency at the University of California, San Francisco where he also served as Chief Resident.

Dr. Lloyd is highly trained in many advanced radiation oncology modalities, including stereotactic body radiation therapy, Gamma Knife radiosurgery, IMRT/Tomotherapy and brachytherapy. Dr. Lloyd has a special interest in treatment of the central nervous system, breast, and gastrointestinal tumors.

Dr. Lloyd has received numerous honors and awards and has been published in books and many peer review publications.

Dan Spratt, MD, is a board-certified, international expert in the management of prostate cancer. Dr. Spratt attended Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee) for his medical training and completed his Radiation Oncology residency at Memorial Sloan Kettering (New York, New York).

Timothy Wilson is a board-certified urologist who has vast experience with minimally invasive, laparoscopic and robotic-assisted urologic oncology. He is one of the top six surgeons in the world in terms of volume that performs robotic-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy.

Dr. Wilson is a member of the American Urological Association and the Society of Urologic Oncology. Throughout his tenure that spans nearly 30 years, he has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters in the areas of urologic oncology, urinary reconstruction and robotic surgery.

In 1995, Los Angeles magazine deemed him one of 25 “Doctors who are making a difference,” and in 1998, he was voted “Professor of the Year” by urology residents in training at the University of Southern California School of Medicine.

Dr. Wilson’s medical philosophy is to provide safe treatments to patients that can not only cure their cancer but minimize pain, suffering and complications.