Physician assistant( PA): A certified and licensed medical professional with a master’ s or doctoral level degree. Physician assistants practice medicine on teams with doctors and other health care professionals, providing a wide range of services. They may specialize in certain diseases or fields of medicine depending on their training and experience.
Psychologist: A health professional who has a graduate degree in psychology and training in clinical psychology. This specialist assesses a person’ s mental and emotional status and provides testing and counseling services to those who may have an emotional or mental health problem.
Radiation therapist: A person with special training to use the equipment that delivers radiation therapy. This expert often helps the patient get into the right position for treatment and then actually gives the treatment.
Radiologic technologist: A health professional who positions patients for x-rays and other imaging tests, takes the images, and then develops and checks the images for quality. The films taken by the technologist are then sent to a radiologist to be read.
Respiratory therapist: A professional who works with people who have breathing problems. This can include breathing treatments and managing patients on ventilators( breathing machines). A CRTT or certified respiratory therapy technician may also examine the patient, collect information about lung function, and set up and maintain equipment, such as ventilators.
Sex therapist: A mental health professional such as a licensed psychiatrist, social worker, clinical nurse specialist, nurse practitioner, or psychologist with special training in counseling people about sexual changes, problems, and communication( for example, after treatment for cancer). It’ s common for a sex therapist to work with both sexual partners, rather than just one person. Social worker: A health professional with special training in dealing with social, emotional, and environmental problems that may come with illness or disability. A social worker may help people find community resources and support services, and provide counseling and guidance to help with issues such as insurance coverage, nursing home placement, and emotional distress. An oncology social worker is an expert in coordinating and providing help for the cancer patient and family, such as counseling them and helping to manage financial problems, housing or child care issues( such as when treatments are given at a facility away from home), and coping with different types of emotional distress.
Speech therapist: A health professional who is specially trained to work with people who have speech and swallowing problems. Speech therapists help people learn skills to communicate and also make sure that patients can safely eat and drink. Also called a speech pathologist.
Source: American Cancer Society.
CANCER CARE TAKES A TEAM ISSUE | SEPTEMBER 2025 13 OURHEALTHNWA. COM