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Georgetown health care group joins MUSC cancer network

Ross Norton //January 5, 2023//

Georgetown health care group joins MUSC cancer network

Ross Norton //January 5, 2023//

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The Tidelands Health network of care stretches from Georgetown to the North Carolina border. (Photo/Tidelands Health)Charleston’s MUSC Health and Georgetown-based Tidelands Health are expanding a years-long collaboration with the naming of Tidelands Health Cancer Care Network as the first full MUSC Hollings Cancer Network affiliate.

This affiliation expands the relationship between the two organizations by creating a community-based hub-and-spoke cancer care delivery model, according to a news release from the Medical University of South Carolina and Tidelands Health. Providing a fully integrated approach to cancer care will offer additional clinical and direct patient benefits in addition to enhanced connectivity to MUSC’s research and education expertise, the release said.

“This cancer affiliation network is the first of its kind in South Carolina and is a full extension of the healing power offered through nationally designated cancer centers such as the Hollings Cancer Center,” Dr. Ray DuBois, MUSC Hollings Cancer Center director, said in the news release. “Membership in this network is a testament to an organization’s commitment to bringing more care and treatment options and greater access to ground-breaking clinical trials to the communities they serve. In addition, this affiliation helps to ensure that the next generation of clinicians, scientists and faculty learn from what we do today and then seek the next level in comprehensive cancer care tomorrow.”

Specific cancer care benefits of the affiliation include access to a community-based medical, surgical, and radiation oncology specialists; care navigation support from initial diagnosis through treatment; access to evidence-based standards of care, nationally recognized cancer experts and genetic testing; and clinical trial and research study participation closer to home, the release said.

Bruce Bailey, president and CEO of Tidelands Health, said participation in the new MUSC Hollings Cancer Network builds upon a broad complement of cancer care services already offered by the Tidelands Health Cancer Care Network.

“No one ever wants to hear the words, ‘You have cancer,’” Bailey said in the release. “But that’s a reality thousands of people across our state face every year. Through the newly established MUSC Hollings Cancer Network, the highly skilled, compassionate experts at MUSC Health and Tidelands Health are standing together to help our cancer patients become cancer survivors.”

Tidelands Health is a Georgetown-based health care organization four hospitals and more than 60 outpatient locations, ranging from Georgetown up the coast to Little River.

“I’m very excited about how this affiliation uses a model that delivers on the ‘best care is local’ concept,” Dr. David Zaas, MUSC Health-Charleston Division CEO, said in the release. “Health care is transforming, and by working together even more, we are enabling high-quality, well-coordinated and compassionate care for those we all serve. As a higher education institution, we are simultaneously demonstrating to future health care providers and researchers the power of these collaborations.” 

MUSC Hollings Cancer Center is South Carolina’s only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, with the largest academic-based cancer research program in the state, the release said. The cancer center is comprised of more than 120 faculty cancer scientists and 20 academic departments dedicated to preventing and reducing the cancer burden across South Carolina.

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