Dr. Shepherd is the Chief Scientific Officer of the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center and the B.H. and Alice C. Beams Endowed Professor in Cancer Research at the John A Burns School of Medicine. He is also a Fulbright Scholar, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), and a former President of the International Society for Clinical Densitometry. He received his PhD in Engineering Physics from the University of Virginia and then completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Biophysics at Princeton University. From there he went on to develop body composition and bone density algorithms for a major women’s health company and his patents are the basis for the accuracy of that company’s body composition algorithms. He then joined the Radiology Department of the University of California San Francisco and led his own research group for 19 years studying a wide variety of imaging biomarkers for breast cancer, obesity and osteoporosis using advanced machine learning techniques. For the past 6 years, he has been with the University of Hawaiʻi Cancer Center where he is the Director of the Hawaiʻi Pacific Islands Mammography Registry that is currently monitoring over 125k women for developing breast cancer risk models in this population with high disparity and underrepresentation. He also hosts the biennial International Breast Density and Risk Assessment Workshop with the next workshop to be held in Lihue on the Island of Kauai in 2025. He has been continuously funded from the NIH since 2005, led 6 R01-funded studies, published over 350 peer-review publications that have been referenced over 24,000 times, and lastly is an avid surfer, cyclist, and island ridge hiker!

Research Focus

Through a multidisciplinary approach, encompassing advanced imaging techniques, AI, and epidemiology, Dr. Shepherd aims to address critical health issues and contribute to the advancement of medical research and patient care.

Breast Cancer Detection:  Dr. Shepherd emphasizes the importance of the differential composition in terms of lipid, water and protein of breast lesions versus health tissue in detecting breast cancer early from improved mammography protocols. (3CB: R01CA257652). Merging the realms of deep learning and breast ultrasound imaging, Dr. Shepherd explores the potential of AI-informed breast ultrasound imaging to detect and classify breast cancer lesions reducing the specialized knowledge needed for early breast density in the US API. (Makawalu: U54CA143727) [1]

Disparity in Breast Cancer Risk:  Dr. Shepherd studies the disparity in risk of breast cancer in women of Asian subgroups, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders. He created the Hawaiʻi Pacific Island Mammography Registry to study the clinical and imaging risk factors associated with the elevated prevalence of advanced stage breast cancer in Hawaiʻi and the USAPI. (HIPIMR: R01CA263491). He is also studying the underlying mechanisms of breast cancer risk in the women of the Pacific by associating novel breast imaging, breast tumor specific, and ectopic adipose tissue biomarkers (SPORE: P20CA275734) [2,3]

Body Composition and Bone Health:  Through quantitative imaging, he also delves into analyzing body composition to understand and manage obesity and sarcopenia better. His research in this area extends to exploring the implications of obesity on health and devising potential preventive strategies. Dr. Shepherd utilizes quantitative imaging techniques, specifically dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, for studying bone health and fracture risk. (NHANES: D30118D00992) [4-6]

3D Optical Imaging:  He pioneered the wholistic use of 3D optical imaging of the body to quantify regional body composition, sarcopenia, and metabolic risk. This has been described for adults, children, young children (SHAPE UP! Keiki: R01HD103885), and for remote sensing in Antarctic Explorers and Astronauts. [7,8].