Residents of North and Central Florida will have access to one of the largest cancer centers in the state beginning Feb. 1 when UF Health and Orlando Health officially join forces.
The UF Health Cancer Center at Orlando Health will utilize programs like interdisciplinary video conferences, in which doctors from both cancer centers will collaborate in finding the best treatment options for particular patients.
Dr. David Guzick, president of UF Health, said the new center will allow cancer patients in the region to have access to a “very wide, very deep set of experts in particular fields across the two major cancer centers.”
Guzick said that each of the two cancer centers has nationally respected experts in the research and treatment of specific cancer fields that the other does not, and their collaboration will allow people to access those experts even if they are not at the hospital where they receive treatment.
“Each patient will have access to more minds,” he said. “The main benefit is just access to more experts looking at their situation.”
The center will also perform research designed to improve the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.
“To do that, you need larger patient populations to enroll in these trials, so we expanded our capabilities to do that,” Guzick said. “Putting the two programs together leads to a total number of new cases of 10,000 a year, which is in the top five in the country.”
Although the official start date for the UF Health Cancer Center at Orlando Health is Feb. 1, he said the hospitals have already begun working together and are making use of the interdisciplinary conferences.
As a former cancer patient who considered receiving treatment at UF Health, Jackson Reeves, a 22-year-old UF business finance alumnus, said he hopes the merger will prioritize personal relationships with patients and their families.
The partnership will allow the hospitals to keep up with advancements made by institutions around the nation, he said, with the end goal being a cure for cancer.
“The new collaboration is an important and positive move for UF Health and Orlando Health,” he said. “The new center can be a place where they can provide positive experiences for patients and their families.”
[A version of this story ran on page 8 on 1/28/2014 under the headline "UF Health joins Orlando Health to fight cancer"]
