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Norwalk Hospital Forms Cancer Alliance With Memorial Sloan Kettering

Dr. Linda Vahdat, Chief of Medical Oncology & Clinical Director, Cancer Services at Norwalk Hospital
Norwalk Hospital
Dr. Linda Vahdat, Chief of Medical Oncology & Clinical Director, Cancer Services at Norwalk Hospital

Norwalk Hospital says its cancer treatment services have benefitted from a new partnership with New York’s Memorial Sloan Kettering. It marks the first time physicians from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center are leading oncology services within another hospital outside of New York State. MSK is one of the most renowned cancer research institutions in the world.

Norwalk’s president Michael Daglio said the agreement is really a recognition of an informal alliance already formed among doctors.

“There are physicians at Norwalk Hospital who have been collaborating with Memorial Sloan Kettering for a number of years, and have been sharing patients and sharing clinical diagnosis and advice and consultation with each other,” he told WNPR.

A team from Memorial Sloan Kettering has visited Norwalk to benchmark their facilities and raise the standard across the board from medical oncology, through radiology and surgery to lab services.

Daglio said staff at Norwalk are learning many of the latest advances in the treatment of different types of cancers.

“We could never build the type of depth and breadth of cancer research and cancer scientists, cancer providers and the subspecialties that Memorial Sloan Kettering has -- we could never offer that to our community on our own,” he said.

If treatment at Memorial Sloan Kettering’s New York facility is deemed necessary for any patient, that process is also streamlined through this partnership.

Copyright 2017 Connecticut Public

Harriet Jones is Managing Editor for Connecticut Public Radio, overseeing the coverage of daily stories from our busy newsroom.