Hartford Healthcare is launching a first-of-its-kind partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK).
The two health care giants will become “care partners” to increase access to state-of-the-art cancer treatment. They have already worked together for a decade as part of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Alliance.
Hartford Healthcare president Jeffrey Flaks made the announcement at their latest under-construction cancer center on Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield.
“Together, we will embark on building new centers like the one behind me that make care more accessible and closer to home,” Flaks said. “People won't have to leave Connecticut in many instances, and they will get world-class care here. From an affordability standpoint, we can provide care locally, we can provide it in the most cost-effective manner. And we can bring more services.”
The center is expected to be finished by the end of the year. When it’s finished, nurses and doctors from both hospitals will work together to provide outpatient care — as they will at more than 70 Hartford Healthcare cancer facilities across the state.
“This is a period of time in life, during a time in health care, and particularly a period of time, I think, in cancer, where everything is accelerated,” Gov. Ned Lamont said. “And you could see 10 or 20 years of progress being made in a very short period of time. And for us as a state and Hartford Healthcare hospital systems to be able to keep up, you have to be partnering with the very best specialists who are at the frontlines of all the changes every day. And that's MSK.”
MSK CEO Dr. Selwyn M. Vickers said the partnership was vital to ensure more of the population had access to life-saving treatment. Alarming data quoted by Vickers showed that the cancer incidence rate will increase by 50% over the next 25 years.
“As we expand this opportunity to continually support and grow the foundational base of MSK, our scientists, our physicians, our researchers, our clinical trials and our trainees, we realize we need to expand who we're able to impact from our discoveries in our care models,” Vickers said. “Hartford Health has a commitment to the broad service of oncology care to all people, as do we. And we realize to make that happen. We need credible partners to make sure we can address and begin to stem the tide of the growing number of incidences of cancers that will increase over time.”
