I hope everyone is enjoying the Arctic Version of the Cherry Blossom Festival. I can’t imagine that the anticipated snowfall on Sunday morning will be good for the blooms—or for sightseeing.
On Monday evening I chaired the MedStar South Oncology strategy meeting, where we identified and prioritized the diseases that will be the initial foci of our clinical and clinical research efforts. This meeting represented the culmination of a detailed three-month planning process. We plan to lead with GI cancers, where we have a large amount of clinical and clinical research strength, and will follow with breast cancer as soon as we have a sufficient complement of breast surgeons and patient care delivery mechanisms in place to effectively compete in that highly competitive market.
Other areas of prioritization will include lung cancer (emphasizing screening, to start), prostate cancer, neuro-oncology and orthopedic oncology. This does not preclude an interest in other diseases, but these areas will be the focus of marketing, the evolution of complementary research activities and the establishment of clinical care networks. This effort will also require a significant upgrade of clinical care facilities and service delivery. It will be very exciting, and the hard work begins now.
On Wednesday, I participated in a reception to kick off our annual Men’s Event for prostate cancer at Morton’s. This event raised nearly $100,000 last year, and we hope to do even better this year. Of course, this event is also a boon for local cardiologists and cardiothoracic surgeons, since the mountains of red meat are offset by lobster dripping in butter. We should get a donation from the American Heart Association as a measure of their gratitude.
On Thursday, I welcomed a delegation of leading French cancer researchers and oncologists to an event organized by Subha Madhavan and Steve Moore; they wanted to learn more about our systems medicine and systems biology efforts. I always enjoy a chance to talk about G-DOC, and I think they learned a lot about our cutting-edge work. Perhaps some collaborations will evolve; that would be a great opportunity to interact with world-class researchers.
I hope you stay warm this weekend. I’ll see many of you at this Monday’s faculty meeting, at noon in Warwick Evans.
Have a great weekend.