On June 10 some of the foremost leaders in the world of cancer care gathered to mark the opening of an exciting new collaboration between Hartford HealthCare and the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center.
Gleaming windows reflecting a late spring sky over the Black Rock Turnpike in Fairfield served as the backdrop for the signing of ceremonial documents declaring the intention of the two well-known medical organizations to work together. The windows belonged to the soon-to-be completed Hartford HealthCare Cancer Center; a 25,000 square foot facility designed to provide cutting edge cancer care treatment with MSK collaboration.
Witnessing the signing were elected officials and community leaders from across the state including Fairfield First Selectman Bill Gerber, the area’s legislative delegation, and Governor Ned Lamont.
“What an amazing day to bring together so many extraordinary people,” said Hartford HealthCare President and CEO Jeffrey Flaks. “Bringing together Hartford HealthCare, a leading health system in the country for quality and safety, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the best in the world at cancer care, is an extraordinary combination.”
Flaks recalled that the idea for the partnership stems from when he gave a speech at the Greenwich Economic Forum two years prior.
“After the conclusion of my talk I exited the stage. A Gentleman came up to me and introduced himself, and he said, ‘you know there’s an opportunity here.’ And he started laying out a vision for what could happen if we brought MSK and Hartford HealthCare closer together to advance cancer care in Connecticut.”
“That individual was the Chairman of the board at MSK Scott Stuart,” recalled Flaks. Stuart in turn introduced him to Dr. Selwyn Vickers, who had just become the new CEO for MSK.
Flaks arranged for Vickers to meet with members of the Hartford HealthCare team and found that the two organizations had compatible visions for the future of cancer care.
“We recognized that these two organizations could come together and create something that could be so extraordinary,” Flaks said. “To be here now and to be the first Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center partner is an incredible moment.”
“What we’re creating today is going to create seamless and frictionless care when patients navigate through Hartford HealthCare and into Memorial Sloan Kettering Center. It’s combining our collective physicians and providers to work together as teams and complete partnership around our disease management teams,” Falks said. He noted that Hartford HealthCare already has 70 cancer centers across the state, and that the partnership would see them all meet or exceed MSK benchmarks and provide access to clinical trials and research protocols.
“We together will embark on building new centers like the one behind me that make care more accessible, closer to home. People won’t have to leave Connecticut in many instances.”
Dr. Selwyn Vickers, the President and CEO of MSK, noted that the organization celebrated 140 years in operation on May 31, and that the partnership program is the culmination of efforts undertaken by MSK leaders 10 years prior.
“We’re excited about partnering to expand those opportunities more broadly. I would say that we will be selective in our partners because we want to make sure there’s a mutual benefit and shared vision,” Vickers said. “There’s a lot to be learned in both directions. I think this other aspect that Jeff mentioned is as we expand this opportunity to continually support and grow the foundational base of what is MSK, our scientists, our physicians, our researchers, our clinical trials, and our trainees, we realize we need to expand of who we’re able to impact from our discoveries and our care models.”
Vickers stressed that this was not only an exciting development but a necessary one.
“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. The data would argue that over the next 25 years the cancer incidence rate will increase by 50 percent,” Vickers said. “We’ll soon exceed 2 million diagnoses of cancer per year.”
Governor Ned Lamont welcomed the news of the collaboration, expressing hope that it would help Connecticut move from the third best healthcare system in the country to number one while also taking advantage of the industry’s growth.
“This is a period of time in health care, particularly in cancer, where everything is accelerated. You could see 10 or 20 years of progress being made in a very short period of time,” Lamont said. For us as a state and Hartford HealthCare and our hospital systems to be able to keep up you got to be partnering with the very best specialists who are at the front lines of all the changes every day.”
The economic impact of the partnership agreement is unclear, but when asked Flaks said that it is expected to support some number of new jobs and there could be significant economic impacts if the research to be conducted proves successful.
