David Poplack, MD, has always loved sports. He radiates energy and drive, qualities that build success not only in sports but also in professional careers and in life.
Before he was recruited to Texas in 1993, Dr. Poplack held faculty and leadership roles at the National Cancer Institute. At Texas Children’s Hospital Cancer and Hematology Center, he served as Director for 25 years before his recent retirement. Over the same period, he served as the Division Chief of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology at Baylor.
Through his research, clinical and leadership roles, Dr. Poplack made a global impact on the care of children with cancer and blood disorders — an achievement that was recognized in 2016, when he received the Distinguished Career Award from the American Society of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology. This prestigious award is presented to a senior physician who, during their career, has had a major impact on the subspecialty through a combination of research, education, patient care and advocacy.
During his more than 50 years of practice, survival rates in the United States have improved from less than 20% to over 85% for children with cancer, results Dr. Poplack describes as “one of the miracles of modern medicine.”
Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Center is ranked #1 in Texas and #4 nationally one of the best children’s cancer centers in the country in 2024-2025 by U.S. News & World Report. The center provides individualized, state-of-the-art medical treatment for patients with childhood cancer and blood disorders. Treating children from 50 states and more than 56 countries, the center is also one of the largest pediatric cancer and hematology centers in the U.S.
Dr. Poplack is proud of how far Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Center progressed under his leadership. During his time as Director, the center grew from six faculty, 42 employees and one research laboratory to 200 faculty, more than 1,100 employees and 46 research laboratories. Its physicians and staff now see more than 4,000 new patients each year.
“My major focus has been on making the kids better,” Dr. Poplack said. “I’ve always worked to increase the number of survivors by developing new therapies that yield increased cure rates with the fewest possible short- and long-term side effects. I wanted to make sure that they are not only ‘survivors,’ but that they have the best quality of life possible.”
To enable long-term monitoring of pediatric cancer survivors, Dr. Poplack developed the Passport for Care® (PFC), one of his many transformative legacies. The PFC addresses follow-up care and resources — a significant need of childhood cancer survivors and their caregivers. The PFC, a decision support tool, was developed using guidelines from the Children's Oncology Group, a national childhood cancer consortium, and launched in 2008. It is now used by clinicians in over 160 clinics worldwide to provide expert care to more than 57,000 survivors. Additionally, survivors have access to a dedicated website, available in both English and Spanish, which can be accessed via smartphone.
After serving for 25 years as Director of the Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Center, Dr. Poplack turned his attention to the dramatic difference that exists in cancer survival between children in the United States, where 85% of children with cancer now survive, versus sub-Saharan Africa, where 90% of the more than 100,000 children who develop cancer each year die. He became determined that Texas Children's should help address this staggering inequity.
“A major reason for this situation was that there were no physicians or caregivers in sub-Saharan Africa who had been trained to take care of children with cancer. So, we developed a capacity-building program to teach physicians, nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare professionals how to diagnose and treat children with cancer,” Dr. Poplack said.
In 2016, Dr. Poplack founded Global Hematology Oncology Pediatric Excellence (Global HOPE) to help ensure that children with cancer and blood disorders in sub-Saharan Africa have access to diagnosis and treatment that lead to outcomes similar to those in resource-rich settings.
“His vision was to create public-private partnerships with Ministries of Health to ensure that we were addressing the gaps and needs in each country,” said Michael Mizwa, Director of Texas Children’s Global Health and Chief Executive Officer of Baylor College of Medicine Global Health.
Dr. Poplack secured funding from the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation with a commitment of $50 million to build capacity for treating pediatric cancer and blood disorders by:
In just seven years, Global HOPE has reached almost 23,000 patients and trained 7,000 health care workers, including 30 pediatric hematology/oncology fellows and 120 specialized nurses. These graduates are now leading care in 12 centers across 6 countries, dramatically expanding access to care.
“Dr. Poplack has been instrumental in parlaying the founding gift into millions of dollars of funding through other sources to sustain the program long after the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation grant is completed,” Mizwa said. If he had not had the vision and the motivation, we wouldn’t have been able to build and grow the program that we have now. We see the benefits of this program every day. He is a remarkable individual.”
In 2018, Dr. Poplack transitioned from Director to Associate Director of Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Center and assumed a new role as Director of Global HOPE. In January 2024, he stepped down from the Director role and served as Founder and Senior Advisor for Global HOPE until he retired in July 2024, when he became a Distinguished Emeritus Professor at Baylor.
At Texas Children's Cancer and Hematology Center, he was succeeded as Division Chief by Susan Blaney, MD, who holds the David G. Poplack, MD, Chair of Pediatric Hematology-Oncology, which Texas Children’s Hospital established in his honor.
His successor as Director of Global HOPE is Joseph Lubega, MD, MPH, CPE, Associate Professor of Pediatrics in Pediatric-Hematology/Oncology at Baylor.
In addition to building programs, Dr. Poplack has been instrumental in building people. The education of hematology-oncology specialists has been one of his priorities. He has trained a large number of fellows and junior faculty scholars, many of whom have gone on to become leaders in the field.
“I have always been strongly involved in mentorship, training and teaching,” Dr. Poplack said. “I envisioned our fellowship as a faculty training program and am proud of our many successful graduates. I’ve wanted to leave the trainees with an appreciation of the importance of our specialty and with enthusiasm, energy and passion for caring for kids with cancer and blood disorders.”
Dr. Poplack served on numerous editorial boards, authored more than 370 articles and book chapters, and is a founding co-editor of Principles and Practice of Pediatric Oncology, the field’s leading textbook, which is in its eighth edition.
He also received the 2023 Excellence in Teaching Award from the 50,000-member American Society of Clinical Oncology. The award recognizes vision, drive and the ability to engage teams of people in collaborative initiatives that advance the field.
“He is one of those rare individuals who not only has the vision, but also the will and the perseverance to execute that vision,” Dr. Blaney said. “To have the wherewithal to inspire others to embrace his initiatives and make them a reality has been something that makes him very special”.
“He is always putting other people first, whether it's the patients and families, trainees, social workers, child life therapists, pharmacists, people at the front desk or those who help with housekeeping,” Dr. Blaney added. “We need that whole team. Decision-making for patients stops with the physicians, but the physicians can't do it without the entire team.”
Dr. Poplack is a graduate of Tufts University. He earned his MD from Boston University School of Medicine, completed a pediatric internship at Stanford University, a residency in pediatrics at Boston Children’s Hospital and a fellowship in pediatric hematology/oncology at the National Cancer Institute. He has served on numerous national and international committees and boards, including appointments at the National Institutes of Health, the Public Health Service, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Institute of Medicine.
“While I was initially hesitant about leaving the National Cancer Institute,” he said, “my experience at Texas Children’s and Baylor has been a truly exciting and wonderful experience. I’m proud that we’ve advanced the center to a point where we are among the best in the world — and leaders at providing integrative care that prioritizes the health of the whole child, family and community.”