The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Indianapolis-based Community Health Network are partnering on a clinical and research cancer program in central Indiana, the health systems said Thursday.
The new program, called Community Health Network MD Anderson Cancer Center, will give Community physicians access to MD Anderson experts for peer-to-peer consultations and patients access to innovative cancer treatments, clinical trials and research studies, according to the press release. The new partnership is MD Anderson’s first in six years.
Community’s seven cancer centers have been members of MD Anderson’s cancer network for nine years. In the new partnership, the centers will follow the same standard of care and provide medical oncology, radiation oncology, surgery, pathology and diagnostic imaging, according to the press release.
“This partnership with MD Anderson combines the best of what Community already offers its patients with the added expertise of a global leader in cancer care,” Bryan Mills, president and CEO of Community Health Network, said.
The new partnership is part of a growing push from comprehensive cancer centers to make their services accessible to more communities. In 2013, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York started an alliance of community cancer care providers beginning with a five-hospital system in Connecticut. In December, City of Hope in California purchased Cancer Treatment Centers of America for $390 million, expanding its services to 115,000 patients nationwide.
