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FEBRUARY 2014 | ISSUE 1

8 P erforming screening to detect lung cancer in people

who are at highest risk for the disease seems to make sense. But for many years, the most-effective method

to perform that screening — providing the greatest evidence-

based benefit to the most highest-risk patients — has been elusive. Until now.

Today, there is enough evidence with research-supported guidelines and protocols to know that for certain people, per-forming screening with computed tomography (CT) scanning can save lives. Appropriate systems and resources have been identified to avoid unnecessary, costly and potentially harmful treatment.

The cancer experts at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center and Hartford HealthCare are committed to providing CT screening for lung cancer based only on the highest standards of research excellence. After years of in-depth study into the

News from the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute

Together. Ahead of cancer.

See TOGETHER, page 6

Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute’s membership in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance will bring benefits to both organizations.

Rendering optionsHHCI andMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance Member1/25/2014

A

B

MEMBER

From the President

Elliot Joseph

Hartford HealthCare President and Chief Executive Officer

A ‘plus’ for all we serveWelcome to “Plus,” the first issue of the Hartford

HealthCare Cancer Institute newsletter. We’re proud to share information about our work to coordinate and deliver consistent, high-quality cancer care to patients across our state and throughout Southern New England.

“Connecting with purpose” is a phrase we use a lot inside Hartford HealthCare. Although it’s not our public brand message, it’s become useful internal shorthand to describe how we are working to build Connecticut’s truly integrated health care system.

If you want a concrete example of what “con-necting with purpose” means to patients and care-givers, you need look no further than the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute, and our being chosen as the charter member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Alliance.

This dynamic partnership is in every way a “plus.” It adds depth and range to the cancer care we provide, increasing patient access to evidence-based, world-class care standards across our region. It connects our talented medical teams with the nationally respected expertise and groundbreaking research of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. For MSK, the collabo-ration with the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute will serve as a model as the MSK Cancer Alliance looks to expand with other hospitals and providers.

Since the announcement of this initiative in

September, teams at Hartford HealthCare and Memorial Sloan Kettering have been hard at work to bring the alliance to life for our patients and families. We have been assessing our processes and creating a single standard of care, further developing our inte-grated cancer network in concert with MSK’s leading-edge standards and protocols. We have been working with specific disease-management teams to provide the various types of care cancer patients require. And we are conducting a national search to recruit a physician-in-chief to lead the Cancer Institute.

More than 6,000 people a year turn to Hartford HealthCare for their cancer care. Our Cancer Institute plus the Cancer Alliance is good news for these patients, their loved ones and all of us who believe that our region deserves access to the world’s most-advanced cancer care.

Every one of us knows someone whose life has been touched by cancer. Perhaps that someone was you. We are very proud to have this unique oppor-tunity to enhance our network to support cancer patients close to home.

My colleagues and I think that is a real “plus” for the communities we serve.

Plus

In this issuen Transformative

initiative to improve care

n Hartford HealthCare’s cancer leaders

n MSK excels at grant request

News from the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute

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Q. How long have you been in the on-cology/hematology field, and what drew you to this specialty?

A. I completed my training in 1987 and have been practicing at Hartford Hospital for 23 years. When I started my training, I never envisioned myself in this field because, quite frankly, I was not prepared emotionally to interact in a meaningful way with patients confronted with this diagnosis. But after I completed my one-year internship at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, I took some time to reflect on my year there, and I realized how much my mind kept coming back to the oncology and hematology patients I had met. I was struck by how much I enjoyed working with those patients, and how much they had contributed to my development as a physician in the course of that one year.

Q. What do you find most inspiring about working in your field — and con-versely, most frustrating?

A. I think the most inspiring thing is working with patients who, because of their diagnosis, strip off the superficial fa-cades that so many of us carry in our day-to-day lives. You really see the courage and the vulnerability of people. Because of their illness, these patients often need to dig down to the core of who they really are as people, to lean on the things they really value, and that’s refreshing. I am gratified to be able to make an impact on these patients’ lives, because they have such a profound impact on me. I think the most frustrating thing is that, in some cases, I just wish there was more I could do. There are some patients I can help a great deal, but there are others who you just try to make as comfortable as pos-sible.

Q. Do you see this partnership be-tween Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute and Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) as a way to help more of those patients?

A. Absolutely. While our institution has certainly been able to provide an extreme-ly high level of care to patients in the past, this partnership will serve only to elevate the standard of care that hospitals such as ours can provide. On a professional level, I’m excited about the opportunity it will give us, as a community-based provider, to give our patients access to the very latest, cutting-edge advances in clini-cal research and therapies and protocols, for which MSK is justifiably renowned. From a personal and intellectual stand-point, I am also looking forward to work-ing closely with clinical researchers and oncologists of a remarkably high caliber

to pursue and examine clinical trials and therapies that are routinely leading to breakthroughs in treatment.

Q. What other benefits do you think the partnership will bring to patients?

A. On a personal level, I am pleased that by bringing the clinical expertise and resources of MSK to the communities that we serve in Connecticut, we will be able to provide the highest level of care to all of the patients we serve. Previously,

patients who may have benefited from the resources at MSK would have had to travel to New York to do so, and for many of our patients, that was just not feasible financially or practically. It almost created a socio-economic imbalance that to me was just not fair. I am happy that this partnership will allow all of our patients to benefit from a broader range of options when it comes to their treatment.

Robert D. Siegel, MD, has been practicing oncology at Hartford Hospital for more than 25 years. He is chairman of the Institutional Review Board, co-chair of the Quality of Care Subcommittee for NCI Community Cancer Centers, principal investigator of Cancer and Leukemia Group B, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, medical director of the Cancer Clinical Research Office, and associ-ate clinical professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

72

CANCER DIVIDES TO CONQUER.

BUT WE WILL WIN BY WORKING TOGETHER.

Hartford HealthCare is proud to be the charter member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer

Alliance. One of the world’s most renowned cancer centers, Memorial Sloan Kettering, is now working

together with Hartford HealthCare, the most comprehensive health system in Connecticut. This

remarkable, one-of-a-kind alliance will enable a single standard of care, as well as unprecedented

access to clinical trials, innovative treatments and breakthrough research that will keep our

specialists, researchers and patients ahead of cancer. Learn more at TogetherAhead.org.

T O G E T H E R . A H E A D O F C A N C E R .

MEMBER

Treating the brave and the vulnerable

Q&A with

Robert D. Siegel, MD n This article, excerpted from the December 2013 issue of MSKLIFE, is used with the permission of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

I magine receiving reports from the members of your department or program that, if stacked one atop the other, would form a col- umn reaching from the floor to the ceiling of your office.

And then having to condense the most salient points of those documents into just 18 pages.

That’s exactly the challenge met by Memorial Sloan Kettering Department of Medicine Chair Dr. George Bosl when MSK was preparing its competing renewal application for a Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG,

more commonly called the “Core Grant”) for submission to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

As Associate Director for Clinical Translational Research for the CCSG, he and the leaders of the Clinical Research Program were tasked with writing the report on MSK’s clinical research

efforts. Other staff members were just as busy reviewing and summariz-ing reports on MSK’s basic science, translational, and population science research programs and core facilities, and developing reports, according to strict application guidelines.

All across MSK, hundreds of program directors, researchers, core facility directors, administrators, assistants, information technology professionals, and other staff collaborated to assemble a 1,624-page document requesting nearly $64 million in funding from the NCI to support a five-year period of research activity (2014-2018).

Their hard work paid off — the NCI gave MSK a favorable review and continued funding. It also gave MSK a score of 10 — the first time a cancer center has received a perfect score.

“This is an important recognition by a prominent group of reviewers evaluating the quality of research at the highest-quality institutions in the world,” said MSK President and CEO Dr. Craig Thompson, who led the ef-fort. “The preparation of the Core Grant application gives us an opportunity to see what we have accomplished, learn how successful our colleagues are, and determine how we can build on our advances.”

Bosl said the collaboration resulted in “by far the best Core Grant applica-tion we ever put together.”

“The research done here is world-class. I’m glad our peers think so, too,” he added. “How we apply the fruits of this research to helping our patients is what we’re really all about.”

What is the Core Grant?

When the National Cancer Act was created in 1971, the Core Grant program was established as a standard fund-ing mechanism. The grant supports research infrastructure that enhances collaborative, transdisciplinary research.

MSK “recompetes” the Core Grant ap-plication every five years (also providing annual progress reports) to secure funding primar-ily for its core facilities. These shared-resource laboratories offer specialized ser-vices and tech-nology — profes-sional expertise and equipment beyond what any individual re-search group can provide — to support MSK’s laboratory, clinical and popula-tion science research investigators.

“In this day, with reduced funding in many areas, obtaining the funds pro-vided by the Core Grant is essential for our research to stay at the cutting edge,” said Scott W. Lowe, PhD, chair, Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center, and a member of the MSK cancer biology and genetics program. “Just as important, the award provides outside validation of the quality of science at MSK and will help all of us obtain funding from other sources.”

A top score for the coreMSK excels at $64M funding request from NCI

n For more about Memorial Sloan Kettering, visit mskcc.org, or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sloankettering, or follow us on Twitter at @sloan_kettering

The Core Grant

application totaled 1,624

pages andsummarized

the work of 10 research

programs.

Dr. George Bosl and other leaders com-piled the sectionof the Core Grant application sum-marizing MSK’s clinical research efforts.

News from Memorial Sloan Kettering

The MSK Core Grant by the numbers

$63.9 million Request for funding 10,000+ Number of cancer-related publications produced by MSK investigators over a six-year period 1,624 Pages in the Core Grant application 512 Investigators submitting data 41 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers 21 Core facilities funded by the Core Grant 12 Megabytes in the Core Grant application PDF file 10 Research programs summarized in the application

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To screen or not to screen?

n Memorial Sloan Kettering has developed a new online tool to help people decide whether or not to be screened for lung cancer. Find out more at www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/adult/lung/screening-decision-tool

6 3

benefits of screening, that high standard of care is now being offered at MSK as well as Hartford HealthCare and its com-munity of patients and physicians.

MSK experts have long been interested in identifying an effective way to screen for lung cancer and participated in a recent large national study that found — for a certain set of long-time heavy smokers — low-dose CT scans to be an effective screening tool in the detection of early-stage lung cancer.

Right test, right patientSo MSK developed protocols to ensure

that patients who would benefit most can receive this evidence-based testing. Several Hartford HealthCare hospitals also use this screening methodology. An MSK epidemiologist and pulmonary specialist even developed an online deci-sion tool to help users understand the likelihood that screening will be benefi-cial for them, in consultation with their physician.

These advances in lung cancer screen-ing are just one example of what mem-bership in the newly-created Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance will mean for HHC patients. Combining MSK’s renowned clinical research capabilities and cancer treatment standards with HHC’s community-based delivery of cancer care can eliminate variability, im-prove outcomes and ensure one high care standard for patients.

“We look forward to working with the team in Hartford to further develop an integrated lung cancer screening pro-gram,” said Charles Rudin, MD, PhD, chief of Thoracic Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “We were impressed that active lung cancer screen-ing has already been implemented at several sites in the Hartford HealthCare network.”

The alliance is about more than shar-ing resources. It’s about sharing ideas, methodologies, visions — with the goal of creating a uniform exceptional level of care for patients. Practitioners and clini-cal researchers from both organizations are getting to know each other and the expertise and resources they will be able to bring to the partnership.

“To me, one of the most exciting as-pects of this partnership is the opportu-nity it provides for bi-directional learning among clinicians and clinical research-ers at both organizations,” said Todd Alekshun, MD, a specialist in oncology/hematology for Hartford HealthCare.

“Certainly, Memorial Sloan Kettering is highly regarded for excellence in the areas of clinical research and clinical trials to identify new cancer treatments. At Hartford HealthCare, we are proud of the innovations and community-based practices we have been making in our ap-proach to cancer care, as well.”

Future ideasIn early December, more than 20 physi-

cians and researchers from both orga-nizations met on a video conference to establish a framework for their collabora-tion in the areas of thoracic malignancies. The discussion is expanding to other tumor types as well, according to Wylie Hosmer, MD, a thoracic surgeon at The Hospital of Central Connecticut, one of five acute care hospitals within the HHC system.

“You could tell there was a very high level of excitement to get the process started,” Dr. Hosmer said. Participants in the conference included medical on-cologists, radiation oncologists, surgical

oncologists, pulmonologists, hematolo-gists and pathologists from across the HCC system and MSK.

The partnership with the HHC Cancer Institute is seen as a blueprint for the newly formed Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance, which in the future will extend to other health care organizations.

“Hartford HealthCare’s participation in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance has significantly accelerated the development of the system-wide Cancer Institute,” said Donna Handley, vice presi-dent of operations for the institute. “The institute, in turn, is providing the struc-ture to adopt new standards, techniques and clinical research protocols that will ultimately lead to better outcomes for patients.”

Strength in numbersFor experienced oncological clinicians

such as Dr. Alekshun, the partnership promises to enhance and further the collective understanding of exciting new frontiers in cancer treatment — espe-cially in promising therapies such as genotyping and targeted, individualized treatment.

“I expect that by working so closely with the people at MSK, we will be able to provide even more personalized treat-ment for individual patients based on the genetic abnormalities that make their cancer unique,” he said.

“In the past, our field has tradition-ally used a one-size-fits-all approach to treatment, but our thinking on that is changing dramatically as we realize the potential of targeted therapies and drugs. Working with our colleagues at MSK will allow us to bring these discoveries to our patients much sooner.”

TOGETHER from page 1

“To me, one of the most exciting aspects of this partnership is the opportunity it provides for bi-directional learning among clinicians and clinical researchers at both organizations.”

— Todd Alekshun, MD, oncology/hematology, Hartford HealthCare

About the Memorial Sloan

Hartford HealthCare

The Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute has been selected as the charter member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance — a transformative initiative to improve the quality of cancer care and the lives of cancer patients.

n What it means: Together, we have the strength to bring cancer patients in Connecticut unprecedented access to breakthrough research, innovative treatment options and care that is second to none. Together, we’ll stay far ahead of cancer.

n Community care, world-class expertise: The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance partnership with the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute is designed to enable an ongoing, dynamic partnership to bring the newest knowledge into a community setting.

n Faster access to the best care available: This distinc-tive clinical and research partnership is built to rapidly move innovative, evidence-based cancer care into the community setting and enable two-way learning across the institutions.

n A commitment to collaboration: Through the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance, MSK and Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute together will develop strate-gies to improve outcomes, expedite the time it takes to get the most-advanced treatment to our patients, and eliminate barriers to high-quality cancer care that many patients and families in Connecticut face today.

About the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute

The Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute is part of the Hartford HealthCare (HHC) system. The system includes a major tertiary/quaternary teaching hospital; four community hospitals; a large primary care physician practice group; a regional home-care system; rehabilitation services; a behavioral health network; senior health services, including skilled-nursing and assisted-living facilities; and a statewide clinical laboratory operation. HHC treats more than 6,000 new cases of cancer annually.

n Comprehensive, coordinated care: The HHC Cancer Institute was established to deliver high-quality, standard-ized, multidisciplinary and coordinated care to all HHC cancer patients, no matter where in the HHC system a patient receives care.

n Full continuum of specialty services: The institute model of care provides all the types of expert care a patient may need for his or her treatment and overall quality of life.

For cancer patients, this includes oncologists, nurses, phar-macists and other care givers. Site-specific, cancer-care teams of oncologists, surgeons, radiologists, pathologists, nurses, researchers and others meet weekly to discuss new patients. A team is involved in every patient’s care.

n World-class expertise, close to home: Through its mem-bership in the MSK Cancer Alliance, the HHC Cancer Institute will expand and enhance well-established cancer programs, services and research across the HHC system and provider network. The HHC Cancer Institute will implement MSK stan-dards of care.

n Unmatched access to innovation: HHC Cancer Institute patients will have unprecedented access to MSK clinical trials conducted by HHC physicians in HHC communities where patients live.

About Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is the world’s oldest and largest private institution devoted to cancer prevention, treatment, research, and education.

n A comprehensive center: The National Cancer Institute has designated Memorial Sloan Kettering as one of only 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the country, underscor-ing MSK’s multidisciplinary cancer research program, expert faculty and state-of-the-art facilities.

n Top rankings: U.S. News & World Report ranked Memorial Sloan Kettering as one of the best hospitals for cancer care in the country and among the nation’s top pediatric hospitals for cancer in its 2013-2014 rankings.

Learn more about Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center at www.mskcc.org

When will the cancer alliance be in place?

The alliance is expected to be in place in the spring of 2014. Right now, an MSK certification process is under way to ensure that the HHC Cancer Institute’s resources, capabilities and standards of care meet or exceed the most-recent and highest standards.

Designated HHC Cancer Institute clinicians will observe new treatment techniques on-site at MSK in New York City. HHC Cancer Institute doctors will be integrated into MSK disease-management teams and actively participate in MSK clinical research. In addition to HHC Cancer Institute physi-cians, HHC Cancer Institute nurses, pharmacists, imaging experts and other care givers are undergoing training.

The HHC Cancer Institute physician-in-chief will be on staff at both the HHC Cancer Institute and MSK.

How to reach us

n By phone: Call the Cancer Connect line at 855-255-6181.n Online: Visit www.togetherahead.orgn On Facebook: Like the Hartford HealthCare Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HartfordHealthCare.

On the coverJames Carroll, MD, a diagnostic radiologist who practices at Hartford HealthCare’s MidState Medical Center in Meriden, is now conducting CT scan screenings to detect lung cancer in patients who meet evidence-based criteria.

An unprecedented partnership

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Kiran Avancha, PhD, RPh, CPh, CCRP, is the director of cancer clinical research for the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute. Before moving to Hartford, he was the lead clinical research pharma-cist and pharmaceutical scientist at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. He was instrumental in estab-lishing the system-wide Investigational Drug Services (IDS) as a core facility for the clinical research operations at UHealth. He served on the University of Miami’s Institutional Review Board and the Sylvester Cancer Center’s DSMB and PRC committees. Avancha received his pharmacy degree from Osmania University in India and his PhD from the University of South Florida. He conduct-ed extensive research at H. Lee Moffitt Comprehensive Cancer Center on drug design and development, synthesis and high-throughput screening of protea-some inhibitors in targeted treatment for multiple myeloma and various other cancers. He is the cofounder and the former chief scientific officer of ClinSync Clinical Research Organization, an oncology-based clinical research and development center in India.

Abbi Bruce, RN, MS, AOCN, is the director of the Hartford Region of the Hartford Healthcare Cancer Institute. Bruce earned her BSN at the University of New Hampshire in 1979 and her MS in oncology nursing at Columbia University in 1987. Bruce has been certified as an OCN since 1990 and an AOCN since 2000. Bruce has worked in Oncology for 34 years, starting as a staff nurse at NYU Medical Center and then pursued her love of oncology as a staff nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. After completing her master’s degree, she moved from New York City to Virginia in 1987 to open a new Bone Marrow Transplant unit at the Medical College of Virginia, where she was the head nurse and clinical nurse specialist in oncology. In 1993, she was named director of oncology services at Henrico Doctors Hospital in Richmond, Va., before returning to New England in 2003 to MidState Medical Center in Meriden, where she was the director of oncology services.

Gene A. Cardarelli, PhD, MPH, DABR, FACMP, is the director of physics and radiation oncology of the Hartford

HealthCare Cancer Institute and the Helen and Harry Gray Cancer Center at Hartford Hospital. He is currently an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He is board certified by the American Board of Radiology in thera-peutic radiological physics, and earned his Bachelor of Science in biology in 1983 from Boston College and his Master of Public Health in 1987 from the Boston University School of Medicine. He then went on to earn a second master’s degree in radiological sciences from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1989. He has worked in medical physics and radiation oncology for 30 years. He began his professional career at Boston City Hospital and Boston University Medical Center, where he worked for seven years as a radiological physicist. He then moved to Greenville, S.C., for four years before returning to New England in 1993 to join the Rhode Island Hospital Department of Radiation Oncology, where he became a chief physicist and spent 16 years. He earned his PhD in medical physics from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2006. He has been with Hartford HealthCare since 2010.

Ellen Dornelas, PhD, is a health psy-chologist with 20 years of experience in developing clinical programs, provid-ing services and conducting behavioral health research. She has authored books, journal articles and book chapters that focus on stress management, smok-ing cessation and treating depression in medical patients. She is the director of the quality of life programs for the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute. In

this role, she focuses on ensuring that cancer patients are provided with the highest level of evidence-based support-ive and preventive-care services.

Pat Montanaro, RN, BSN, MBA, is a pediatric nurse with med-surg and critical care experience in staff and leadership roles. Her focus includes leveraging information technology to support health care needs and develop-ing novel nursing informatics roles. She transitioned to a full technology focus in 1995 with IT leadership roles, imple-menting and supporting clinical and business applications. Her experience includes development and leadership of teams supporting electronic health records and ancillary solutions in diverse hospital, specialty and practice settings. Montanaro was assigned to the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute in January 2012 to provide IT support and guidance with oncology-specific IT solutions. Her focus areas include medical oncology, radiation oncology, clinical trials, cancer registry, patient navigation and survivor-ship programs.

James F. O’Dea, PhD, MBA, is a clinical psychologist and has been employed at Backus Hospital since 1989. He holds a PhD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology and an MBA from the University of New Haven. A graduate of Rutgers University, he earned both a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a Bachelor of Science in microbiology/immunology in 1982. O’Dea came to Backus Hospital in 1989 to practice clinical psychology in the department of psychiatric services. He assumed his

About the teamMeet Hartford HealthCare’s cancer leaders

Leaders of the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute team include, from left, Gene Cardarelli, Pat Montanaro, Jim O’Dea, Kiran Avancha, Abbi Bruce, Donna Handley, Mohamed Saleh, Ellen Dornelas, Jan Ruderman, Andrew Salner, and Kris Popovitch.

first administrative position at Backus Hospital in 1997, assuming leadership of this department. In the subsequent years, O’Dea has held a number of posi-tions within the organization in program development and operational leadership. In 2008, O’Dea assumed a leadership position in the award-winning Backus cancer program. He continues in this leadership position and most recently was named the regional director for can-cer services for the Hartford HealthCare East Region.

Kristoffer Popovitch RT(R), MBA, joined Hartford HealthCare in November 2013 and is the director of oncology for the system’s Central Region. He gradu-ated from radiology school in 1993 and brings 22 years of health care experi-ence, including director of occupational medicine and medical imaging as well as administrative director of clinical services and most recently, as admin-istrative director of an oncology service line. Over the last four years, he was the executive director of Northeast Regional Radiation Oncology Network. He earned his Master of Business Administration from Bay Path College in Longmeadow, Mass.

Jan Ruderman MBA, is the director of the Tallwood Urology and Kidney Institute at Hartford Hospital. In her role,

she provides administrative leadership to six urologic and kidney disease-man-agement teams at Hartford Hospital as well as the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute’s system-wide urologic oncol-ogy disease-management team. Prior to her current role, she was an H3W (How Hartford HealthCare Works) facilita-tor, supporting the development of the Cancer Institute model. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and an MBA.

Mohamed Saleh, ME, MSTM, CSSBB, has been a practitioner in Lean and Six Sigma transformations for the past several years, in both the manufactur-ing and service sectors. He has extensive experience in hands-on health care, manufacturing, supply chain, network optimization and enterprise informa-tion systems. Prior to serving as a performance-improvement facilitator at Hartford Hospital, he was the direc-tor of continuous improvement for five years at Hartford HealthCare Medical Group. He is also a faculty member in the graduate department for Application of Lean Principles at Central Connecticut State University and an instructor at the Institute of Technology and Business Development. He is a certified master Six Sigma black belt, has a master’s degree in engineering and technol-ogy management and a Bachelor of

Science in mechanical engineering from Central Connecticut State University. He is pursuing his PhD in business administration.

Andrew L. Salner, MD, FACR, is direc-tor of the Helen and Harry Gray Cancer Center at Hartford Hospital. He serves as the department chief of radiation oncology at Hartford Hospital. Salner received his bachelor’s degree and MD from Brown University. He served a resi-dency in internal medicine at Hartford Hospital, a fellowship in radiation therapy at the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, and subsequently served on staff at Dana Farber and Beth Israel Hospital. In 1982, he was named the medical director of radiation oncology at Hartford Hospital, and was subse-quently named director of the hospital’s cancer program in 1991. Salner serves on numerous hospital, regional and na-tional committees. He currently serves on Hartford Hospital’s board and that of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He was founding chair and now past chair and board member of the Connecticut Cancer Partnership, Connecticut’s CDC-recognized comprehensive cancer coalition. He was awarded a fellowship in the American College of Radiology. He has written numerous articles and book chapters.

Leading the team

Donna Handley, MA, RN, BSN, is vice president of operations for the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute. Before coming to Hartford Hospital as the vice president of the cancer program in March of 2009, Handley served as the vice president for clinical services and system vice presi-dent of cancer services at St. John Health in Detroit. Upon graduating from Northeastern University in Boston, she began her career as a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, specializing in thoracic surgical oncology. She is an experienced health care executive and is responsible for develop-ing and leading the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute as well as launch-ing the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance. Handley played a key role in the development of the relationship with Memorial Sloan Kettering.

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Kiran Avancha, PhD, RPh, CPh, CCRP, is the director of cancer clinical research for the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute. Before moving to Hartford, he was the lead clinical research pharma-cist and pharmaceutical scientist at the University of Miami’s Miller School of Medicine. He was instrumental in estab-lishing the system-wide Investigational Drug Services (IDS) as a core facility for the clinical research operations at UHealth. He served on the University of Miami’s Institutional Review Board and the Sylvester Cancer Center’s DSMB and PRC committees. Avancha received his pharmacy degree from Osmania University in India and his PhD from the University of South Florida. He conduct-ed extensive research at H. Lee Moffitt Comprehensive Cancer Center on drug design and development, synthesis and high-throughput screening of protea-some inhibitors in targeted treatment for multiple myeloma and various other cancers. He is the cofounder and the former chief scientific officer of ClinSync Clinical Research Organization, an oncology-based clinical research and development center in India.

Abbi Bruce, RN, MS, AOCN, is the director of the Hartford Region of the Hartford Healthcare Cancer Institute. Bruce earned her BSN at the University of New Hampshire in 1979 and her MS in oncology nursing at Columbia University in 1987. Bruce has been certified as an OCN since 1990 and an AOCN since 2000. Bruce has worked in Oncology for 34 years, starting as a staff nurse at NYU Medical Center and then pursued her love of oncology as a staff nurse at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. After completing her master’s degree, she moved from New York City to Virginia in 1987 to open a new Bone Marrow Transplant unit at the Medical College of Virginia, where she was the head nurse and clinical nurse specialist in oncology. In 1993, she was named director of oncology services at Henrico Doctors Hospital in Richmond, Va., before returning to New England in 2003 to MidState Medical Center in Meriden, where she was the director of oncology services.

Gene A. Cardarelli, PhD, MPH, DABR, FACMP, is the director of physics and radiation oncology of the Hartford

HealthCare Cancer Institute and the Helen and Harry Gray Cancer Center at Hartford Hospital. He is currently an assistant professor of radiology at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. He is board certified by the American Board of Radiology in thera-peutic radiological physics, and earned his Bachelor of Science in biology in 1983 from Boston College and his Master of Public Health in 1987 from the Boston University School of Medicine. He then went on to earn a second master’s degree in radiological sciences from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 1989. He has worked in medical physics and radiation oncology for 30 years. He began his professional career at Boston City Hospital and Boston University Medical Center, where he worked for seven years as a radiological physicist. He then moved to Greenville, S.C., for four years before returning to New England in 1993 to join the Rhode Island Hospital Department of Radiation Oncology, where he became a chief physicist and spent 16 years. He earned his PhD in medical physics from the University of Massachusetts Lowell in 2006. He has been with Hartford HealthCare since 2010.

Ellen Dornelas, PhD, is a health psy-chologist with 20 years of experience in developing clinical programs, provid-ing services and conducting behavioral health research. She has authored books, journal articles and book chapters that focus on stress management, smok-ing cessation and treating depression in medical patients. She is the director of the quality of life programs for the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute. In

this role, she focuses on ensuring that cancer patients are provided with the highest level of evidence-based support-ive and preventive-care services.

Pat Montanaro, RN, BSN, MBA, is a pediatric nurse with med-surg and critical care experience in staff and leadership roles. Her focus includes leveraging information technology to support health care needs and develop-ing novel nursing informatics roles. She transitioned to a full technology focus in 1995 with IT leadership roles, imple-menting and supporting clinical and business applications. Her experience includes development and leadership of teams supporting electronic health records and ancillary solutions in diverse hospital, specialty and practice settings. Montanaro was assigned to the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute in January 2012 to provide IT support and guidance with oncology-specific IT solutions. Her focus areas include medical oncology, radiation oncology, clinical trials, cancer registry, patient navigation and survivor-ship programs.

James F. O’Dea, PhD, MBA, is a clinical psychologist and has been employed at Backus Hospital since 1989. He holds a PhD in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology and an MBA from the University of New Haven. A graduate of Rutgers University, he earned both a Bachelor of Arts in psychology and a Bachelor of Science in microbiology/immunology in 1982. O’Dea came to Backus Hospital in 1989 to practice clinical psychology in the department of psychiatric services. He assumed his

About the teamMeet Hartford HealthCare’s cancer leaders

Leaders of the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute team include, from left, Gene Cardarelli, Pat Montanaro, Jim O’Dea, Kiran Avancha, Abbi Bruce, Donna Handley, Mohamed Saleh, Ellen Dornelas, Jan Ruderman, Andrew Salner, and Kris Popovitch.

first administrative position at Backus Hospital in 1997, assuming leadership of this department. In the subsequent years, O’Dea has held a number of posi-tions within the organization in program development and operational leadership. In 2008, O’Dea assumed a leadership position in the award-winning Backus cancer program. He continues in this leadership position and most recently was named the regional director for can-cer services for the Hartford HealthCare East Region.

Kristoffer Popovitch RT(R), MBA, joined Hartford HealthCare in November 2013 and is the director of oncology for the system’s Central Region. He gradu-ated from radiology school in 1993 and brings 22 years of health care experi-ence, including director of occupational medicine and medical imaging as well as administrative director of clinical services and most recently, as admin-istrative director of an oncology service line. Over the last four years, he was the executive director of Northeast Regional Radiation Oncology Network. He earned his Master of Business Administration from Bay Path College in Longmeadow, Mass.

Jan Ruderman MBA, is the director of the Tallwood Urology and Kidney Institute at Hartford Hospital. In her role,

she provides administrative leadership to six urologic and kidney disease-man-agement teams at Hartford Hospital as well as the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute’s system-wide urologic oncol-ogy disease-management team. Prior to her current role, she was an H3W (How Hartford HealthCare Works) facilita-tor, supporting the development of the Cancer Institute model. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University and an MBA.

Mohamed Saleh, ME, MSTM, CSSBB, has been a practitioner in Lean and Six Sigma transformations for the past several years, in both the manufactur-ing and service sectors. He has extensive experience in hands-on health care, manufacturing, supply chain, network optimization and enterprise informa-tion systems. Prior to serving as a performance-improvement facilitator at Hartford Hospital, he was the direc-tor of continuous improvement for five years at Hartford HealthCare Medical Group. He is also a faculty member in the graduate department for Application of Lean Principles at Central Connecticut State University and an instructor at the Institute of Technology and Business Development. He is a certified master Six Sigma black belt, has a master’s degree in engineering and technol-ogy management and a Bachelor of

Science in mechanical engineering from Central Connecticut State University. He is pursuing his PhD in business administration.

Andrew L. Salner, MD, FACR, is direc-tor of the Helen and Harry Gray Cancer Center at Hartford Hospital. He serves as the department chief of radiation oncology at Hartford Hospital. Salner received his bachelor’s degree and MD from Brown University. He served a resi-dency in internal medicine at Hartford Hospital, a fellowship in radiation therapy at the Joint Center for Radiation Therapy at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, and subsequently served on staff at Dana Farber and Beth Israel Hospital. In 1982, he was named the medical director of radiation oncology at Hartford Hospital, and was subse-quently named director of the hospital’s cancer program in 1991. Salner serves on numerous hospital, regional and na-tional committees. He currently serves on Hartford Hospital’s board and that of the Hartford Symphony Orchestra. He was founding chair and now past chair and board member of the Connecticut Cancer Partnership, Connecticut’s CDC-recognized comprehensive cancer coalition. He was awarded a fellowship in the American College of Radiology. He has written numerous articles and book chapters.

Leading the team

Donna Handley, MA, RN, BSN, is vice president of operations for the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute. Before coming to Hartford Hospital as the vice president of the cancer program in March of 2009, Handley served as the vice president for clinical services and system vice presi-dent of cancer services at St. John Health in Detroit. Upon graduating from Northeastern University in Boston, she began her career as a nurse at Massachusetts General Hospital, specializing in thoracic surgical oncology. She is an experienced health care executive and is responsible for develop-ing and leading the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute as well as launch-ing the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance. Handley played a key role in the development of the relationship with Memorial Sloan Kettering.

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n Memorial Sloan Kettering has developed a new online tool to help people decide whether or not to be screened for lung cancer. Find out more at www.mskcc.org/cancer-care/adult/lung/screening-decision-tool

6 3

benefits of screening, that high standard of care is now being offered at MSK as well as Hartford HealthCare and its com-munity of patients and physicians.

MSK experts have long been interested in identifying an effective way to screen for lung cancer and participated in a recent large national study that found — for a certain set of long-time heavy smokers — low-dose CT scans to be an effective screening tool in the detection of early-stage lung cancer.

Right test, right patientSo MSK developed protocols to ensure

that patients who would benefit most can receive this evidence-based testing. Several Hartford HealthCare hospitals also use this screening methodology. An MSK epidemiologist and pulmonary specialist even developed an online deci-sion tool to help users understand the likelihood that screening will be benefi-cial for them, in consultation with their physician.

These advances in lung cancer screen-ing are just one example of what mem-bership in the newly-created Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance will mean for HHC patients. Combining MSK’s renowned clinical research capabilities and cancer treatment standards with HHC’s community-based delivery of cancer care can eliminate variability, im-prove outcomes and ensure one high care standard for patients.

“We look forward to working with the team in Hartford to further develop an integrated lung cancer screening pro-gram,” said Charles Rudin, MD, PhD, chief of Thoracic Oncology Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. “We were impressed that active lung cancer screen-ing has already been implemented at several sites in the Hartford HealthCare network.”

The alliance is about more than shar-ing resources. It’s about sharing ideas, methodologies, visions — with the goal of creating a uniform exceptional level of care for patients. Practitioners and clini-cal researchers from both organizations are getting to know each other and the expertise and resources they will be able to bring to the partnership.

“To me, one of the most exciting as-pects of this partnership is the opportu-nity it provides for bi-directional learning among clinicians and clinical research-ers at both organizations,” said Todd Alekshun, MD, a specialist in oncology/hematology for Hartford HealthCare.

“Certainly, Memorial Sloan Kettering is highly regarded for excellence in the areas of clinical research and clinical trials to identify new cancer treatments. At Hartford HealthCare, we are proud of the innovations and community-based practices we have been making in our ap-proach to cancer care, as well.”

Future ideasIn early December, more than 20 physi-

cians and researchers from both orga-nizations met on a video conference to establish a framework for their collabora-tion in the areas of thoracic malignancies. The discussion is expanding to other tumor types as well, according to Wylie Hosmer, MD, a thoracic surgeon at The Hospital of Central Connecticut, one of five acute care hospitals within the HHC system.

“You could tell there was a very high level of excitement to get the process started,” Dr. Hosmer said. Participants in the conference included medical on-cologists, radiation oncologists, surgical

oncologists, pulmonologists, hematolo-gists and pathologists from across the HCC system and MSK.

The partnership with the HHC Cancer Institute is seen as a blueprint for the newly formed Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance, which in the future will extend to other health care organizations.

“Hartford HealthCare’s participation in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance has significantly accelerated the development of the system-wide Cancer Institute,” said Donna Handley, vice presi-dent of operations for the institute. “The institute, in turn, is providing the struc-ture to adopt new standards, techniques and clinical research protocols that will ultimately lead to better outcomes for patients.”

Strength in numbersFor experienced oncological clinicians

such as Dr. Alekshun, the partnership promises to enhance and further the collective understanding of exciting new frontiers in cancer treatment — espe-cially in promising therapies such as genotyping and targeted, individualized treatment.

“I expect that by working so closely with the people at MSK, we will be able to provide even more personalized treat-ment for individual patients based on the genetic abnormalities that make their cancer unique,” he said.

“In the past, our field has tradition-ally used a one-size-fits-all approach to treatment, but our thinking on that is changing dramatically as we realize the potential of targeted therapies and drugs. Working with our colleagues at MSK will allow us to bring these discoveries to our patients much sooner.”

TOGETHER from page 1

“To me, one of the most exciting aspects of this partnership is the opportunity it provides for bi-directional learning among clinicians and clinical researchers at both organizations.”

— Todd Alekshun, MD, oncology/hematology, Hartford HealthCare

About the Memorial Sloan

Hartford HealthCare

The Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute has been selected as the charter member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance — a transformative initiative to improve the quality of cancer care and the lives of cancer patients.

n What it means: Together, we have the strength to bring cancer patients in Connecticut unprecedented access to breakthrough research, innovative treatment options and care that is second to none. Together, we’ll stay far ahead of cancer.

n Community care, world-class expertise: The Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance partnership with the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute is designed to enable an ongoing, dynamic partnership to bring the newest knowledge into a community setting.

n Faster access to the best care available: This distinc-tive clinical and research partnership is built to rapidly move innovative, evidence-based cancer care into the community setting and enable two-way learning across the institutions.

n A commitment to collaboration: Through the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance, MSK and Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute together will develop strate-gies to improve outcomes, expedite the time it takes to get the most-advanced treatment to our patients, and eliminate barriers to high-quality cancer care that many patients and families in Connecticut face today.

About the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute

The Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute is part of the Hartford HealthCare (HHC) system. The system includes a major tertiary/quaternary teaching hospital; four community hospitals; a large primary care physician practice group; a regional home-care system; rehabilitation services; a behavioral health network; senior health services, including skilled-nursing and assisted-living facilities; and a statewide clinical laboratory operation. HHC treats more than 6,000 new cases of cancer annually.

n Comprehensive, coordinated care: The HHC Cancer Institute was established to deliver high-quality, standard-ized, multidisciplinary and coordinated care to all HHC cancer patients, no matter where in the HHC system a patient receives care.

n Full continuum of specialty services: The institute model of care provides all the types of expert care a patient may need for his or her treatment and overall quality of life.

For cancer patients, this includes oncologists, nurses, phar-macists and other care givers. Site-specific, cancer-care teams of oncologists, surgeons, radiologists, pathologists, nurses, researchers and others meet weekly to discuss new patients. A team is involved in every patient’s care.

n World-class expertise, close to home: Through its mem-bership in the MSK Cancer Alliance, the HHC Cancer Institute will expand and enhance well-established cancer programs, services and research across the HHC system and provider network. The HHC Cancer Institute will implement MSK stan-dards of care.

n Unmatched access to innovation: HHC Cancer Institute patients will have unprecedented access to MSK clinical trials conducted by HHC physicians in HHC communities where patients live.

About Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center is the world’s oldest and largest private institution devoted to cancer prevention, treatment, research, and education.

n A comprehensive center: The National Cancer Institute has designated Memorial Sloan Kettering as one of only 41 comprehensive cancer centers in the country, underscor-ing MSK’s multidisciplinary cancer research program, expert faculty and state-of-the-art facilities.

n Top rankings: U.S. News & World Report ranked Memorial Sloan Kettering as one of the best hospitals for cancer care in the country and among the nation’s top pediatric hospitals for cancer in its 2013-2014 rankings.

Learn more about Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center at www.mskcc.org

When will the cancer alliance be in place?

The alliance is expected to be in place in the spring of 2014. Right now, an MSK certification process is under way to ensure that the HHC Cancer Institute’s resources, capabilities and standards of care meet or exceed the most-recent and highest standards.

Designated HHC Cancer Institute clinicians will observe new treatment techniques on-site at MSK in New York City. HHC Cancer Institute doctors will be integrated into MSK disease-management teams and actively participate in MSK clinical research. In addition to HHC Cancer Institute physi-cians, HHC Cancer Institute nurses, pharmacists, imaging experts and other care givers are undergoing training.

The HHC Cancer Institute physician-in-chief will be on staff at both the HHC Cancer Institute and MSK.

How to reach us

n By phone: Call the Cancer Connect line at 855-255-6181.n Online: Visit www.togetherahead.orgn On Facebook: Like the Hartford HealthCare Facebook page at www.facebook.com/HartfordHealthCare.

On the coverJames Carroll, MD, a diagnostic radiologist who practices at Hartford HealthCare’s MidState Medical Center in Meriden, is now conducting CT scan screenings to detect lung cancer in patients who meet evidence-based criteria.

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Q. How long have you been in the on-cology/hematology field, and what drew you to this specialty?

A. I completed my training in 1987 and have been practicing at Hartford Hospital for 23 years. When I started my training, I never envisioned myself in this field because, quite frankly, I was not prepared emotionally to interact in a meaningful way with patients confronted with this diagnosis. But after I completed my one-year internship at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, I took some time to reflect on my year there, and I realized how much my mind kept coming back to the oncology and hematology patients I had met. I was struck by how much I enjoyed working with those patients, and how much they had contributed to my development as a physician in the course of that one year.

Q. What do you find most inspiring about working in your field — and con-versely, most frustrating?

A. I think the most inspiring thing is working with patients who, because of their diagnosis, strip off the superficial fa-cades that so many of us carry in our day-to-day lives. You really see the courage and the vulnerability of people. Because of their illness, these patients often need to dig down to the core of who they really are as people, to lean on the things they really value, and that’s refreshing. I am gratified to be able to make an impact on these patients’ lives, because they have such a profound impact on me. I think the most frustrating thing is that, in some cases, I just wish there was more I could do. There are some patients I can help a great deal, but there are others who you just try to make as comfortable as pos-sible.

Q. Do you see this partnership be-tween Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute and Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) as a way to help more of those patients?

A. Absolutely. While our institution has certainly been able to provide an extreme-ly high level of care to patients in the past, this partnership will serve only to elevate the standard of care that hospitals such as ours can provide. On a professional level, I’m excited about the opportunity it will give us, as a community-based provider, to give our patients access to the very latest, cutting-edge advances in clini-cal research and therapies and protocols, for which MSK is justifiably renowned. From a personal and intellectual stand-point, I am also looking forward to work-ing closely with clinical researchers and oncologists of a remarkably high caliber

to pursue and examine clinical trials and therapies that are routinely leading to breakthroughs in treatment.

Q. What other benefits do you think the partnership will bring to patients?

A. On a personal level, I am pleased that by bringing the clinical expertise and resources of MSK to the communities that we serve in Connecticut, we will be able to provide the highest level of care to all of the patients we serve. Previously,

patients who may have benefited from the resources at MSK would have had to travel to New York to do so, and for many of our patients, that was just not feasible financially or practically. It almost created a socio-economic imbalance that to me was just not fair. I am happy that this partnership will allow all of our patients to benefit from a broader range of options when it comes to their treatment.

Robert D. Siegel, MD, has been practicing oncology at Hartford Hospital for more than 25 years. He is chairman of the Institutional Review Board, co-chair of the Quality of Care Subcommittee for NCI Community Cancer Centers, principal investigator of Cancer and Leukemia Group B, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, medical director of the Cancer Clinical Research Office, and associ-ate clinical professor at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine.

72

CANCER DIVIDES TO CONQUER.

BUT WE WILL WIN BY WORKING TOGETHER.

Hartford HealthCare is proud to be the charter member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer

Alliance. One of the world’s most renowned cancer centers, Memorial Sloan Kettering, is now working

together with Hartford HealthCare, the most comprehensive health system in Connecticut. This

remarkable, one-of-a-kind alliance will enable a single standard of care, as well as unprecedented

access to clinical trials, innovative treatments and breakthrough research that will keep our

specialists, researchers and patients ahead of cancer. Learn more at TogetherAhead.org.

T O G E T H E R . A H E A D O F C A N C E R .

MEMBER

Treating the brave and the vulnerable

Q&A with

Robert D. Siegel, MD n This article, excerpted from the December 2013 issue of MSKLIFE, is used with the permission of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

I magine receiving reports from the members of your department or program that, if stacked one atop the other, would form a col- umn reaching from the floor to the ceiling of your office.

And then having to condense the most salient points of those documents into just 18 pages.

That’s exactly the challenge met by Memorial Sloan Kettering Department of Medicine Chair Dr. George Bosl when MSK was preparing its competing renewal application for a Cancer Center Support Grant (CCSG,

more commonly called the “Core Grant”) for submission to the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

As Associate Director for Clinical Translational Research for the CCSG, he and the leaders of the Clinical Research Program were tasked with writing the report on MSK’s clinical research

efforts. Other staff members were just as busy reviewing and summariz-ing reports on MSK’s basic science, translational, and population science research programs and core facilities, and developing reports, according to strict application guidelines.

All across MSK, hundreds of program directors, researchers, core facility directors, administrators, assistants, information technology professionals, and other staff collaborated to assemble a 1,624-page document requesting nearly $64 million in funding from the NCI to support a five-year period of research activity (2014-2018).

Their hard work paid off — the NCI gave MSK a favorable review and continued funding. It also gave MSK a score of 10 — the first time a cancer center has received a perfect score.

“This is an important recognition by a prominent group of reviewers evaluating the quality of research at the highest-quality institutions in the world,” said MSK President and CEO Dr. Craig Thompson, who led the ef-fort. “The preparation of the Core Grant application gives us an opportunity to see what we have accomplished, learn how successful our colleagues are, and determine how we can build on our advances.”

Bosl said the collaboration resulted in “by far the best Core Grant applica-tion we ever put together.”

“The research done here is world-class. I’m glad our peers think so, too,” he added. “How we apply the fruits of this research to helping our patients is what we’re really all about.”

What is the Core Grant?

When the National Cancer Act was created in 1971, the Core Grant program was established as a standard fund-ing mechanism. The grant supports research infrastructure that enhances collaborative, transdisciplinary research.

MSK “recompetes” the Core Grant ap-plication every five years (also providing annual progress reports) to secure funding primar-ily for its core facilities. These shared-resource laboratories offer specialized ser-vices and tech-nology — profes-sional expertise and equipment beyond what any individual re-search group can provide — to support MSK’s laboratory, clinical and popula-tion science research investigators.

“In this day, with reduced funding in many areas, obtaining the funds pro-vided by the Core Grant is essential for our research to stay at the cutting edge,” said Scott W. Lowe, PhD, chair, Geoffrey Beene Cancer Research Center, and a member of the MSK cancer biology and genetics program. “Just as important, the award provides outside validation of the quality of science at MSK and will help all of us obtain funding from other sources.”

A top score for the coreMSK excels at $64M funding request from NCI

n For more about Memorial Sloan Kettering, visit mskcc.org, or like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/sloankettering, or follow us on Twitter at @sloan_kettering

The Core Grant

application totaled 1,624

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programs.

Dr. George Bosl and other leaders com-piled the sectionof the Core Grant application sum-marizing MSK’s clinical research efforts.

News from Memorial Sloan Kettering

The MSK Core Grant by the numbers

$63.9 million Request for funding 10,000+ Number of cancer-related publications produced by MSK investigators over a six-year period 1,624 Pages in the Core Grant application 512 Investigators submitting data 41 NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers 21 Core facilities funded by the Core Grant 12 Megabytes in the Core Grant application PDF file 10 Research programs summarized in the application

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8 P erforming screening to detect lung cancer in people

who are at highest risk for the disease seems to make sense. But for many years, the most-effective method

to perform that screening — providing the greatest evidence-

based benefit to the most highest-risk patients — has been elusive. Until now.

Today, there is enough evidence with research-supported guidelines and protocols to know that for certain people, per-forming screening with computed tomography (CT) scanning can save lives. Appropriate systems and resources have been identified to avoid unnecessary, costly and potentially harmful treatment.

The cancer experts at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center and Hartford HealthCare are committed to providing CT screening for lung cancer based only on the highest standards of research excellence. After years of in-depth study into the

News from the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute

Together. Ahead of cancer.

See TOGETHER, page 6

Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute’s membership in the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance will bring benefits to both organizations.

Rendering optionsHHCI andMemorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance Member1/25/2014

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MEMBER

From the President

Elliot Joseph

Hartford HealthCare President and Chief Executive Officer

A ‘plus’ for all we serveWelcome to “Plus,” the first issue of the Hartford

HealthCare Cancer Institute newsletter. We’re proud to share information about our work to coordinate and deliver consistent, high-quality cancer care to patients across our state and throughout Southern New England.

“Connecting with purpose” is a phrase we use a lot inside Hartford HealthCare. Although it’s not our public brand message, it’s become useful internal shorthand to describe how we are working to build Connecticut’s truly integrated health care system.

If you want a concrete example of what “con-necting with purpose” means to patients and care-givers, you need look no further than the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute, and our being chosen as the charter member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Alliance.

This dynamic partnership is in every way a “plus.” It adds depth and range to the cancer care we provide, increasing patient access to evidence-based, world-class care standards across our region. It connects our talented medical teams with the nationally respected expertise and groundbreaking research of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. For MSK, the collabo-ration with the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute will serve as a model as the MSK Cancer Alliance looks to expand with other hospitals and providers.

Since the announcement of this initiative in

September, teams at Hartford HealthCare and Memorial Sloan Kettering have been hard at work to bring the alliance to life for our patients and families. We have been assessing our processes and creating a single standard of care, further developing our inte-grated cancer network in concert with MSK’s leading-edge standards and protocols. We have been working with specific disease-management teams to provide the various types of care cancer patients require. And we are conducting a national search to recruit a physician-in-chief to lead the Cancer Institute.

More than 6,000 people a year turn to Hartford HealthCare for their cancer care. Our Cancer Institute plus the Cancer Alliance is good news for these patients, their loved ones and all of us who believe that our region deserves access to the world’s most-advanced cancer care.

Every one of us knows someone whose life has been touched by cancer. Perhaps that someone was you. We are very proud to have this unique oppor-tunity to enhance our network to support cancer patients close to home.

My colleagues and I think that is a real “plus” for the communities we serve.

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In this issuen Transformative

initiative to improve care

n Hartford HealthCare’s cancer leaders

n MSK excels at grant request

News from the Hartford HealthCare Cancer Institute

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