"Chapter 12: Global Academic Programs and other Global Initiatives" by Tacey A. Rosolowksi PhD and Oliver Bogler PhD
 
Chapter 12: Global Academic Programs and other Global Initiatives

Chapter 12: Global Academic Programs and other Global Initiatives

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Description

In this Chapter, Dr. Bogler explains the structure and function of Global Academic Programs.

He explains that GAP was housed administratively in the Center for Global Oncology when he began as Vice President in 2010. He also sketches the structural changes to this organization as other programs focused on domestic partnerships and were then absorbed in the The Cancer Network.

He stresses that GAP is designed to support the international work of MD Anderson’s faculty. He sketches distinguishes GAP’s way of operating with that of The Cancer Network. Dr. Bogler notes that the faculty select the institutions that will become connected to MD Anderson. He explains that if no strong faculty commitment exists to build the connection, then nothing results.

Identifier

BoglerO_02_20141117_C012

Publication Date

11-11-2014

Publisher

The Historical Resources Center, Research Medical Library, The University of Texas Cancer Center

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

An Institutional Unit; MD Anderson Snapshot; MD Anderson Impact; Institutional Processes; Institutional Mission and Values; The MD Anderson Brand, Reputation; Beyond the Institution; Understanding the Institution; Global Issues –Cancer, Health, Medicine

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.

Disciplines

History of Science, Technology, and Medicine | Oncology | Oral History

Transcript

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

So what is being offered? I mean, what is the MD Anderson way of delivering care, and what is the MD Anderson way of setting up research?

Oliver Bogler, PhD:

So I think what you said earlier is kind of the distill of that. It’s multidisciplinary and it’s research-driven. So wherever we go with our Cancer Network program—and, again, that’s not primarily me. My group is sitting in the back of that particular car. But wherever we go, we insist that our partners include research in their clinical operations, and by that we mean pretty much clinical trials. We don’t mean laboratory-based basic research or necessarily patient-based research, but we mean clinical trials. And you’ll notice that’s the case in Banner and Cooper and elsewhere. That’s part of our DNA. So, yeah, I think that’s the key. What Amy’s group will do—and again, I have given her presentation once or twice when she hasn’t been able to—again, she has the first-hand knowledge, but what Amy’s group will do is really everything to get you there. So if you’re a Greenfield, if you have a building, she will help you design your floors, your clinics, your hospital floors, your inpatient intake and whatever. If you already have a hospital, obviously that’s no longer necessary, but they’ll help you with staffing levels and educational programs, and they will put in place formal educational programs for your physicians. So things that you might get on a more flexible and ad hoc basis from the GAP group, you will get in a much more structured way from Amy’s group predominantly. But the goal is to get the MD Anderson approach into the partnership organization, and it comes with ongoing connectivity. It’s not a certificate and then we walk away; it’s an ongoing relationship. Amy insists on, I think, after the exploratory phase when we commit, both sides commit, I think she insists on a ten-year commitment because it’s not really worth doing it unless both partners were there for the long haul. And it includes connectivity like tumor boards and visits and training opportunities and so on, so that we do cycle. I mean, all the physicians at Banner or Cooper or the other domestic partners come to our campus for a period of time. If they’re not trained here, they’ll come here for a period of time to connect and pick up on how we do things so that they learn the MD Anderson way. So it’s really practical at some level. And then we obviously send physicians there. Then they also put in place quality-control metrics, so I get the reports through the Cancer Networks. There’s monthly—there’s a whole bunch of metrics at each of these institutions that they report to us that are surrogate markers for clinical quality, just like the kinds of markers that we report to the state and so on. So it’s very much a co-managed program. Amy’s kind of the front end. The co-management then goes to Maggie’s department and Ed’s department. So Maggie is—we talked about Maggie Rowe, Vice President for Clinical Operations, so Maggie, she was really—I don’t know how long she spent in Phoenix, but it must have been over a year pretty much there the whole time for the Banner relationship, which was the first real incarnation of this new model. But she was on the ground. I mean, she was more there than here, I believe, and that’s what it takes. It takes that sort of “Here’s how we’re going to do it” kind of stuff. So, yeah, so that model’s working well. Now, internationally, it’s a little bit different. In the domestic program, a fully employed physician model is part of the criteria. An MD Anderson-trained model is part of the criteria. So that is not something that you can typically get internationally. Most international, frankly, most healthcare centers in the world, have a privilege system. Albert Einstein is a good example. So although some of the cancer doctors there are employed, in the Cancer Center most of the surgeons, for example, are privilege surgeons, so I think there’s—I don’t know how many—several thousand surgeons who have privileges at that hospital and may have privileges elsewhere and decide where they take their patients. So there’s no way you can—you can’t impose on a privilege community your standards or expectations, because they’re not tied to the institution in that same way. So it’s a little bit different. So if you’re in Banner, I think, or in Cooper, and you see the MD Anderson logo, I think you can be pretty sure that the care that you’d get is very much equivalent to what you’re getting here. When you’re in São Paulo at Albert Einstein, I think you’re getting excellent care, and you’re getting care that meets the expectations and quality standards that the relationship imposes. You wouldn’t expect that all the physicians that you encounter there are trained at MD Anderson or necessarily have been specifically vetted by us. I think that wouldn’t be the case. So it’s a little bit different, but it’s appropriate. Like I said earlier, I’m excited about the international thing because, you know, we can make a huge impact on so many more cancer patients, so many more lives, by bringing our experience and knowledge to these kinds of centers, and that’s our mission. I mean, that’s huge, you know. That’s our mission. It’s a commercial thing, but I think we have to be realistic. I’m always surprised when people are queasy about commercialization. As a cancer patient, I’m acutely aware that anything that touched me, touched my body, or was injected into me or was used in my care is ultimately a commercial product, right? None of it was given for free or built at home by somebody, right? So the same thing with these kinds of relationships that we build there. There’s nothing wrong with having a commercial aspect to it. That’s how the world functions. Value is transmitted by money, and so money changes hands when value changes hands, right? And as I said earlier, as a state institution, we can’t give our knowledge away. We can give our knowledge away for free by publishing it, but we can’t actually implement programs for free in other places. That takes person hours, and person hours have to be paid somehow.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Well, we’re almost at five o’clock, so I don’t want to abuse your time, keep you from—

Oliver Bogler, PhD:

Okay.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

So would you like to close off for today? We have another session scheduled.

Oliver Bogler, PhD:

Sure. It’s up to you. If you feel it’s a natural break, I’m very happy to break off if you feel—

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Yeah, I think we can break now and then resume. So I want to thank you for your time today.

Oliver Bogler, PhD:

Sure. That was a lot of fun.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

That was fun, wasn’t it?

Oliver Bogler, PhD:

I feel like I didn’t stop talking for two hours. That’s probably true. (laughter)

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Well, I’m turning off the recorder at 4:57. Thank you very much, Dr. Bogler.

Oliver Bogler, PhD:

Thank you. (end of session one)

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Chapter 12: Global Academic Programs and other Global Initiatives

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