News and Notes in Detail
New Interdisciplinary Thoracic Cancer Clinic
The Interdisciplinary Thoracic Cancer Clinic opened in February, the result of more than a year of planning and collaboration by a dedicated team of clinicians and staff. Like the interdisciplinary clinics in Head and Neck and Breast Cancer, this clinic brings experts in diagnosing and treating cancer-from radiology, pathology, pulmonology, thoracic surgery, and radiation and medical oncology-together once a week with specially trained nurses, care managers, dietitians, and scheduling coordinators to provide complete lung cancer care, through one point of contact, at one location.
The basic goal for the first day of clinic was to get everyone accustomed to the new format and space, but the team was collaborating and sharing patients within the first hour. By the second hour of the clinic, there were several success stories where onsite consultation between physicians resulted in better timing and management of patients' care. Patients were quite pleased to be able to get several visits accomplished in one day. At least five patients saw physicians they weren't originally scheduled with, speeding up their treatment planning phase and eliminating the need for extra trips to DHMC.
You can read more about the clinic in the current issue of the Norris Cotton Cancer Center Focus and DHMC Skylight newsletters. A new advertising campaign for DHMC and the Cancer Center includes the lung cancer clinic in print, radio, and television ads, and refers people to LearnMore.DHMC.org for more information.
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Associate Director for Administration and Scientific Affairs
The Cancer Center is pleased to welcome Robert W. Gerlach, MPA, who joins us this month as Associate Director for Administration and Scientific Affairs. As chief administrator for the Cancer Center, Mr. Gerlach will have responsibility for financial planning and monitoring, grants and contracts administration, and infrastructure management. He will lead the non-clinical administrative operations of the Cancer Center and coordinate with clinical leadership to foster a strong translational research environment. His knowledge base, administrative expertise, and national perspective will be essential assets in furthering the goals of the Cancer Center and in preparing for the Core Grant renewal in 2008.
Mr. Gerlach has held leadership roles at the Taussig Cancer Center at Cleveland Clinic for almost 30 years, most recently as Administrative Director and Senior Grants Administrator. He holds a B.A. from Harvard, and earned a Masters of Public Affairs at Princeton with a focus on economics and health care policy. Prior to his work at Cleveland Clinic, Mr. Gerlach served as Administrator of the Roswell Park Cancer Center in Buffalo. He has served for many years as an administrative reviewer for NCI Cancer Center site visits, and thus is closely familiar with Cancer Centers across the country.
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Under the direction of Dr. Marc Pipas, Cancer Center Vice President Susan Reeves, and Rick McAllister, CTO Project Director, the structure and function of the Clinical Research Office (CRO) is being reviewed with an eye to maximizing the effectiveness and efficiency of the services it provides. As a result, the Clinical Research Office administrative team has been restructured and additional administrative resources added. Michele Sbrega, who has been working as a special assistant in the Dean's Office, will come on board as the Acting Administrative Director in March. Associate Director Priscilla West will focus her efforts on special projects for the office. Several new coordinators also have recently been hired. The current list of research coordinators is on the website at http://www.cancer.dartmouth.edu/clinicaltrials/office.shtml
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