April 27, 2000
Dana-Farber, Children's Hospital formalize 50-year relationship
Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Care Created
The formation of the Dana-Farber/Children's Hospital Cancer Care (DF/CHCC) was announced today by the Boards of Trustees at Children's Hospital Boston (CH) and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI). The affiliation formalizes a long-standing collaboration between the two preeminent hospitals that spans 50 years.
"The primary goal of the affiliation is to create a seamless patient care experience for children whose illness requires the full spectrum of inpatient and outpatient hematology or oncology pediatric services," says Stephen Sallan, M.D., who will serve as the chief medical officer of DF/CHCC and remain as chief-of-staff at Dana-Farber.
As has been the case for decades, outpatient pediatric oncology care will continue to be delivered at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Jimmy Fund Clinic and inpatient oncology care will be provided at Children's Hospital. Children's Hospital will also continue to provide both inpatient and outpatient hematology services.
Overseeing DF/CHCC is a board with trustee, physician and administrative leadership from both hospitals. While each hospital will continue to deliver care under its own license, the chief medical officer will be responsible for coordinating clinical practices and information systems, and the DF/CHCC Board will oversee further operational integration between the two entities. Dana-Farber will continue to raise funds through the Jimmy Fund in support of its outpatient services and research, and Children's Hospital will continue to raise funds for its programs and research.
"For years Children's Hospital and Dana-Farber have worked hand-in-hand to cure cancer in children. It has been a very successful partnership that we are now formally recognizing and looking to improve upon," says David Weiner, chief executive officer at Children's.
"I am excited because I have been part of this collaborative enterprise for so many decades. There are still opportunities to improve the coordination of care and service between our institutions through this more formal structure," says David Nathan, M.D., president of Dana- Farber Cancer Institute and physician-in-chief at Children's Hospital from 1985 to 1995. "For instance we would like to pursue one integrated medical record and a common pharmacy order entry system." "This affiliation cements our relationship and provides momentum to additional joint efforts similar to the many already underway, such as the Pediatric Advanced Care Team which focuses on supporting children and families at the end stages of cancer at both institutions, or the many collaborative clinical trials underway," says Philip Pizzo, M.D., physician-in-chief at Children's.
In 1947, Dr. Sidney Farber, then the chairman of the Division of Laboratories and Research at Children's Hospital, moved across Binney Street in Boston's Longwood Medical Area to establish the Children's Cancer Research Foundation, which later became the modern Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Since that time, Children's Hospital and Farber's cancer institute have had a close relationship, and the two institutions have helped raise the cure rate for children's cancer to over 70 percent.
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is among the leading cancer research and treatment centers in the United States, and is the only center in New England to be both a federally-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center and Center for AIDS Research. It is a principal teaching affiliate of the Harvard Medical School.
Children's Hospital Boston is the nation's premier pediatric medical center. Founded in 1869 as a 20-bed hospital for children, today it is a 300-bed comprehensive center for pediatric and adolescent health care grounded in the values of excellence in patient care and sensitivity to the complex needs and diversity of children and families. Children's Hospital is the primary pediatric teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School, home to the world's leading pediatric research enterprise, and the largest provider of health care to the children of Massachusetts.
