MaineHealth and Dana-Farber partner to improve cancer care in Maine
A partnership between MaineHealth and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston will provide expanded access to cancer care and clinical research trials of new cancer-fighting drugs to Maine patients.
Portland-based MaineHealth, the largest health care provider in Maine with 11 member and affiliated hospitals, will work together with Dana-Farber to expand the initiatives and services available at the Maine hospitals, the entities announced Wednesday. As part of the partnership, cancer-specialist Dana-Farber will provide consultation, training and other services to physicians and their teams throughout MaineHealth’s system
“We seek high-quality partners in cancer care to enable patients to stay close to home as much as possible, either for all of their care or after the most intensive, complex treatments,” MaineHealth President Bill Caron said in a statement. “This partnership brings together Dana-Farber’s world-renowned cancer expertise and MaineHealth’s comprehensive health system to create an unprecedented range of options for cancer patients throughout the region.”
Many of the cancer care treatment will be offered through MaineHealth’s hospital network, and more complex cases will be taken on at Maine Medical Center in Portland. For the most complex and challenging cases, patients will have access to Dana Farber’s most advanced treatments and clinical trials.
Dr. Scot Remick, physician leader of oncology for MaineHealth, told the Portland Press Herald that since Maine has among the highest rates of cancer in the country, the partnership has the potential to benefit many patients. About 70% of the roughly 9,000 new cancer patients in Maine every year are treated in MaineHealth’s network.
Remick described the access through the partnership to experimental treatments and medications as an “extraordinary opportunity” for Maine patients.
MaineHealth and Dana-Farber had been working for nearly two years on formalizing the partnership, which doesn’t involve any money changing hands, according to the Press Herald.
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