November 27, 2006
Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center partners with Milford Regional Medical Center to provide cancer care to communities southwest of Boston
As part of a strategy to reach patients and families in locations beyond its traditional borders, Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women's Cancer Center (DF/BWCC) will extend its care to communities southwest of Boston.
An architect's rendering of DF/BWCC at Milford Regional Medical Center
"A celebration of hope" was held Nov. 12 to mark the collaboration of DF/BWCC and Milford Regional Medical Center in a new facility scheduled to open in late 2007. Construction has already begun for the two-story, 54,000-square-foot building in Milford, Mass., that offers exam rooms, chemotherapy infusion, radiation therapy, and diagnostic imaging across the street from the medical centers main entrance.
"Today is a defining moment in the evolution of Milford Regional as we add this critical cancer treatment facility to our long-range plan for a full-service, community-based, regional healthcare system," said Francis Saba, president and CEO of Milford Regional Healthcare System.
Doctors, patients, administrators, and policy makers gathered for the celebration, including Massachusetts State Senator Richard Moore, chair of the committee on healthcare financing, who praised the planned cancer center for its role in preventing and treating a disease that touches nearly everyone.
DF/BWCC will bring closer-to-home care to patients who live in this region 35 miles southwest of Boston. Two oncologists currently practicing at Milford Regional — Mona Kaddis, MD, and Michael Constantine, MD — will become Dana-Farber physicians, and a third will soon be hired.
In the new facility, Dana-Farber will oversee medical oncology, Brigham and Women's will offer radiation oncology, and Milford will provide diagnostic imaging such as CT, PET-CT, MRI, and X-ray, as well as laboratory testing. The comprehensive program will also offer patients additional support and education and access to certain DF/BWCC clinical trials. Patients and families are helping to plan the building design, and hope to include a healing garden to provide a peaceful environment.
"There is a sense of excitement among leaders at Brigham and Women's and Dana-Farber," said Edward J. Benz Jr., MD, Dana-Farbers president and CEO. "In Milford, we have found a wonderful partnership of community and academic medicine, which will hopefully become a prototype for the future."
Milford is the second "satellite" DF/BWCC campus for adult clinical care. In the program at Faulkner Hospital, patients are seen in four disease centers breast, lung, and gastrointestinal cancer, and general oncology - with Faulkner oncologists joining Dana-Farber staff. The clinic has grown rapidly, with nearly 800 patients transferring their care to the Faulkner unit, and more than 2,000 patient visits since it opened in June.
