FAIRFIELD, Conn. — Hartford HealthCare announced a first-in-the-nation partnership with Memorial Sloan Kettering Monday.
Healthcare officials said this is a historic expansion. MSK is growing their presence outside New York and they noted the timing of this project couldn’t be more necessary.
“Cancer rates will grow the CDC reports by 50% over the next decade or so,” said Dr. Peter Yu, physician in chief of the Hartford Healthcare Cancer Institute. “This is a tremendous national problem.”
Medical professionals said 2 million people are diagnosed with cancer every year.
“These are people's mother, brother, sister, siblings, friends, teachers, right, the people who protect us, these are going to be the people who are cared for,” Jeffrey Flaks, president and CEO of Hartford Healthcare, said.
Despite increasing rates, experts said treatments are advancing. In the last two decades, cancer deaths in the United States have dropped by 26%.
“That's 1% a year that we are saving lives and the National Cancer Institute projects that will be 2.3% this year,” added Yu.
Doctors with Hartford HealthCare and MSK hope to help even more people with a new partnership.
Hartford HealthCare is building a state-of-the-art, 25,000-square-foot cancer center in Fairfield.
“This building, which will be opened later this year we hope, will offer the latest advances,” Yu explained. “It's being built ground up according to MSK specifications.”
The Fairfield center will provide outpatient cancer services with expert Hartford HealthCare physicians on-site.
“We can provide care locally, we can provide it in the most cost-effective manner, and we can bring more services,” said Flaks.
The facility is only part of the plan — Hartford HealthCare is also working to become the first officially designated “care partner” of MSK.
“For us as a state and Hartford HealthCare and hospital systems to be able to keep up, you got to be partnering with the very best specialists who are at the frontlines of all the changes every day,” Gov. Ned Lamont said.
After completing a review from MSK, Hartford HealthCare patients will have access to higher-quality cancer care, new techniques, cutting-edge research programs and clinical trials.
MSK and Hartford HealthCare will also collect and track data on quality, outcomes, and patient experiences.
“We hope to see that not only start in Connecticut, but to end in a more national platform,” Dr. Selwyn Vickers, president and CEO of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, said. “We would see that expand to other hospitals, to make sure that we can expound upon the strengths that we have, to have the impact that we want to have across the country, beginning first owning success in our backyard in Connecticut with Hartford HealthCare.”
Along with the new Fairfield facility, Hartford HealthCare plans to create a dedicated cancer unit at St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, and update their cancer care quality and access across all 70 of their current locations.
Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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