Agreement signed to finalize Cancer Care Alliance

Dr. Fred Appelbaum, left, director of the Cancer Care Alliance, and Norm Hubbard, recently named chief operating officer, stand atop the new Thomas Building at the Hutchinson Center's Southeast Lake Union campus. Across the street behind them is the site (now occupied by two low buildings) for the planned outpatient cancer center. Photo by Clay Eals, Hutchinson Center.

A formal agreement establishing the Cancer Care Alliance has now been signed by the three member institutions—the UW, the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and Children’s Health Care System.

Governing boards of the organizations authorized signing the agreement in separate actions earlier: the Hutchinson Center Board of Trustees on April 23; the UW Medical Center Board on May 4; the UW Board of Regents on May 15, and the Children’s Board of Trustees on May 27.

Dr. Paul Ramsey, UW vice president for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, noted when the Alliance was announced last fall that “This is one of the most far-reaching developments in the history of the UW medical school since inception of our regionalized program of medical education more than 25 years ago.”

The Alliance will integrate clinical cancer programs at all three institutions and will include a new building for outpatient cancer care, to be constructed on the Southeast Lake Union campus of the Hutchinson Center.

In addition, Dr. Fred Appelbaum, who was named Alliance director, announced that Norm Hubbard will be the chief operating officer. Hubbard has been associate vice president for center affairs at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and begins work in Seattle this month.

When the Alliance is fully implemented, the Southeast Lake Union ambulatory center will be the focal point for adult multidisciplinary cancer clinics, pediatric and adult bone marrow and stem cell transplant clinics, and outpatient cancer treatment services. Adult inpatients will be cared for at UW Medical Center and pediatric inpatients at Children’s.

The Cancer Care Alliance was created to speed the development of new knowledge of, and treatment for, various cancers by developing a programmatically integrated clinical cancer program.

In addition to providing state-of-the-art cancer care, the Alliance will organize a regional network. The network will be designed to speed the sharing of treatment protocols and provide rapid access to the resources of the Alliance with the objective of enhancing the ability of physicians and hospitals to diagnose and treat cancer patients.

The new outpatient clinic at the Hutchinson Center will serve as the “front door” for collective integrated programs of the Alliance. Behind-the-scenes work on the building is already under way. By this winter, demolition of existing buildings on the site is expected, with groundbreaking now slated for March. The new outpatient clinic building is scheduled for completion in early 2001. ¶