Leadership at St. Vincent Healthcare is aiming to close the gap when it comes to accessing advanced gynecologic oncology care and treatment through a new partnership with University of Colorado School of Medicine.
As part of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, the medical school is one of the top 30 cancer centers in the United States. Through the partnership, specialists will travel to Montana twice a month to provide advanced treatment consultation and surgical treatments to patients.
Dr. Saketh Guntupalli, program director of the university’s gynecologic oncology program, kicked off the program on Wednesday June 22 at the St. V’s Frontier Cancer Center and Blood Institute.
“The University of Colorado has a very strong commitment… to providing outstanding opportunities for health care in the greater Rocky Mountain region,” Guntupalli said. “We feel like we are at the center of the geographic area, so (coming to Billings) felt like it was a natural fit and a natural partnership.”
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Before the partnership, patients were referred to Billings Clinic for treatment and the doctors at St. V’s “would never see them again,” said Dr. Chimene Dahl, labor and delivery medical director at St. V’s.
Though both hospitals announced million dollar investments in the Health Information Exchange program (HIE) meant to make medical records easily transferable between facilities, physicians at the oncology facility shake their heads.
“It’s not as seamless as it could be,” Dahl said. “And then, once the patient is in that Billings Clinic system, we lose touch with them.”
The result is fragmented care for women with uterine, ovarian, cervical, vaginal and vulvar cancer, the main types of gynecologic cancers, said Dr. Patrick Cobb, St. V’s medical director of oncology research.
“When you’ve got a patient with a very serious problem… you want to make sure that you’ve got all of the information in front of you that’s readily available down to the lab tests,” Cobb said.
About 100,000 women are diagnosed with gynecologic cancer every year in the United States, according to John Hopkins Medicine, with the most common being uterine cancer. It is the sixth most common cause of cancer related death in women, but in the last several years, researchers have significantly increased survivability.
Now, patients at the St. V’s Frontier Cancer Center will have access to clinical trials during their treatment and will have the option to participate in experimental treatments. Individual cases are also discussed among 10 specialists on a multidisciplinary board at the medical school and will offer opinions on treatment.
“Our gynecologists, they create these real bonds with their patients over time, so they want to participate in their surgeries and want to participate in their aftercare…that’s going to be something that Dr. Guntupalli will be able to help us with,” Cobb said.
