BROOKSVILLE, Fla., June 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Florida Cancer Institute has recently affiliated with the University of Florida Shands Cancer Center.
The collaboration will provide cooperative diagnostic and treatment protocols and continuing medical education opportunities for local physicians. It also will facilitate access to UF physicians and the Shands at UF academic medical center in Gainesville for specialized healthcare for complex cancer cases.
Florida Cancer Institute has nine medical and radiation oncologists located in Brooksville, Spring Hill, New Port Richey, Bayonet Point and Zephyrhills. "This alliance represents an opportunity for our patients to receive the highest quality oncology care. I see tremendous benefit to our patients," said Dr. Richard Caradonna, president, Florida Cancer Institute.
The medical, nursing and technical support staff at the Florida Cancer Institute locations will have access to a host of educational programs through the UF Health Science Center. These opportunities include online education, clinical practicums for health professionals, and Grand Rounds for medical staff. Dr. Caradonna added that the UF and Shands research mission also would benefit Florida Cancer Institute patients.
As affiliates, the Florida Cancer Institute medical staff members may have opportunities to participate in clinical drug trials and new medical device trials through the academic medical center.
Marvin Dewar, M.D. J.D., Shands HealthCare vice president for affiliations and provider relations, emphasized the relationship as mutually beneficial.
"Shands HealthCare and the University of Florida are pleased to welcome Florida Cancer Institute to our team," Dewar said. "This affiliation provides teaching opportunities in a community setting for our future physicians, as well as offering continuing medical education opportunities."
The affiliation program of Shands HealthCare and the UF College of Medicine was created in the early 1990's and now is linked with 12 organizations in Florida and South Georgia.
Florida Cancer Institute
Florida Cancer Institute has been providing state-of-the-art oncology care to patients in the greater Tampa Bay region for more than two decades. The multi-specialty group includes physicians who are board certified in medical oncology, hematology, internal medicine, radiation oncology and geriatrics. Experienced and compassionate healthcare professionals including physicists, dosimetrists and registered nurses certified in oncology care and licensed and certified radiation technologists, support the physicians. An experienced, responsive administrative staff sensitive to the stresses faced by cancer patients and their caregiver's supports these clinical teams.
Shands HealthCare
Shands HealthCare, affiliated with the University of Florida Health Science Center, is one of the premier health systems in the Southeast. Shands HealthCare is committed to delivering essential care to residents living in the local communities it serves; offering advanced diagnostic and medical services; and pioneering and providing sophisticated treatments that draw patients nationally for highly specialized, complex care.
At the heart of Shands HealthCare are nine not-for-profit hospitals and more than 1,500 affiliated University of Florida and community physicians, covering virtually every medical specialty and providing everything from family practice and pediatrics to behavioral health and highly specialized, medically complex care such as transplantation.
UF Health Science Center
The University of Florida Health Science Center -- the most comprehensive academic health center in the Southeast -- is dedicated to high-quality programs of education, research, patient care and public service. The center is known nationally for programs related to aging; the brain and spine, cancer, genetics, diabetes, drug design and organ transplantation. Multidisciplinary programs are being expanded in the areas of children's health and women's health.
On its home campus in Gainesville, the Health Science Center encompasses the colleges of Dentistry, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Veterinary medicine; as well as the flagship referral hospital, Shands at UF.
The Jacksonville campus of the UF Health Science Center includes graduate teaching programs in medicine, dentistry, pharmacy and nursing, as well as collaborative research programs, and rapidly growing patient-care enterprise known as Shands Jacksonville.
University of Florida Shands Cancer Center (UFSCC)
The University of Florida Shands Cancer Center (UFSCC) is an interdisciplinary initiative connecting clinicians and scientists who perform original scientific research and enhance clinical strategies for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of cancer.
US OncologyCONTACT: Lance M. Skelly of Shands HealthCare, Marketing & PublicRelations, +1-352-265-0373, or +1-800-535-0373, skelll@shands.ufl.edu , or DanConley of Beacon Communications, +1-312-593-8461, dconley@beaconpr.com
Web site: http://www.floridacancerinstitute.us/