Chapter 16: The Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging: More on the Story of Establishing CABI
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Description
Dr. Podoloff begins by explaining that the Center for Biomedical Imaging is ready to begin promoting its services within MD Anderson. He notes the importance of talking to clinicians and researchers about their imaging needs. He gives the example of how a research project in the Department of Head and Neck Surgery led to a new standard of care.
Dr. Podoloff He talks about financial challenges of running CABI and legal challenges involved with acquiring instruments from GE Health. He explains the decision to offer standard of care imaging with research imaging tacked on in order to avoid “hemorrhaging money.” Dr. Podoloff talks about the different between a non-profit and a not-for-profit institution.
Identifier
PodoloffD_02_20150423_C16
Publication Date
4-23-2015
City
Houston, Texas
Interview Session
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD, Oral History Interview, April 23, 2015
Topics Covered
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Building the Institution; Building/Transforming the Institution; Leadership; Industry Partnerships; Multi-disciplinary Approaches; Fiscal Realities in Healthcare
Creative Commons 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 A. Rosolowski, PhD:
So we’re here at this story. Do you want to tell me that story now? How CABI came about?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
I just did.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
No, but I mean those were the beginning discussions. I mean what was the story of its evolution and—
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Oh. I think the way to answer your question is to answer this question. Why did it take from 2000 to 2010 to move into the building?
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
There we go. (laughter)
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
OK. Well, a lot of things changed in that period of time. First of all, GE originally planned to give us the instruments. Well, that became no, no, GE can’t give anything to a customer who it also sells stuff to because that then sets up conflict of interest. So for nine of those ten years our lawyers and their lawyers drew up an agreement that was mutually satisfying to both corporate entities, both MD Anderson, the state of Texas, the UT System, and GE Healthcare. That’s what took ten years.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Right. I can imagine those conversations were very complicated.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Extremely. And if it wasn’t for Dan Fontaine’s staff of people we never would have executed the agreement. So that’s what took the ten years from initial thought of isn’t this a good idea to opening the doors and actually coming in here in October of 2010.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
What about the planning process? I mean what’s the mission of CABI? And how did the various facets of its activities come about?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
It’s to eliminate cancer as a public health problem with the use of imaging technologies to develop new treatments and diagnoses. The mission statement of the McCombs Institute, of which we are a part, is for the early detection and treatment of cancer. So the key word is early. And that’s what gets you from the lumps and bumps to molecules. The molecular changes antedate the physical changes that you see.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Yeah, I interviewed Red McCombs. Now when did you know that you would be part of the McCombs Institute and that you would be housed here?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
I think that came almost at the beginning, because they were developing OK, we’re going to do this. Then what you say is well, where are we going to put it, well, let’s put it on the South Campus, we have all those other buildings that are either there or going up. So when they started to build SCRB 3 and 4, SCRB 1 and 2 had already been up, those buildings that are on the other side of Fannin Street over there. The Smith Building. I think that was SCRB 1. I don’t know what SCRB 2 is. But it’s in our stuff. And then SCRB 3 and 4 were the last two that they put up. It took them about two years to build it. I think they broke ground for it in 2007 and it was ready, it became occupied in April of 2010. I didn’t get here until September of 2010. I was still the division head until August 31st, 2010.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
OK. Now I mean it’s not—maybe it seems obvious but it’s not obvious to me. How did you find individuals who would be connected? The various areas in terms of research and technological development. How did you work all that out?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Yeah, we already had all that kind of on the main campus. It was a matter of just getting a technical director, getting an administrative director, we follow the same administrative structure as the rest of the institution, the way you would start any department. There is a governance for the centers. And let me show you another thing that I think will help to make this clearer.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
I’m just noticing too that you’ve had an anniversary. I mean it’s April 2015 so CABI has had the five-year anniversary moving in.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Yeah, we just put our five-year—so in a traditional medical school you have a department, and that’s the structure that we’ve talked about that’s 100 years old. It’s an academic unit. It contains faculty with similar backgrounds and credentials. It’s led by a chair. And that chair is responsible for recruitment, space, and mentoring. A center, on the other hand, is a group of faculty whose research focus is on a particular theme, in this case imaging, or in the case of the multidisciplinary care centers—
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Were there conversations? I mean in terms of you requesting or inviting faculty to become part of the center were there people who thought about that? Yes, I would want to be part, no, I wouldn’t be part of the center? What was that thought process like in them making their selection?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
I wasn’t actually involved in that because by that time I’d decided that I would be the medical director of CABI. You’re talking about an unfilled position even to this date of a center director, not a medical director, who would do all that.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Why is that position as yet unfilled?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
You’d have to ask my bosses about that.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
OK. (laughter)
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
I suspect because they haven’t found the right person. But there was somebody here in that role and he didn’t work out.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
I see. OK. And I assume you’re not mentioning his name because you do not care to.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
I would rather not discuss that any further.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
That’s fine, that’s fine. OK. Well, that’s very interesting.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
So the center is like the Proton Center or the Imaging Center, the Center for Advanced Bio, or the Immunology Center. All those things are on the South Campus. And it was not an accident that that happened. They put them over here for synergies. So we have cross-center meetings monthly. And the idea was that we would have intellectual fertilization across those centers.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Does it work?
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Yeah. To some degree it does. Like everything else, it depends on the people. It works pretty well in most of the areas. We have a very strong relationship with the Proton Center.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
I can imagine, yeah.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
We have a fairly strong one with the Immunology Center. We have a very very big tie-in with Physics and with Cancer Systems Imaging. Those are two departments in Diagnostic Imaging. Dr. Piwnica-Worms, who is the deputy division head for research, anything that has a research focus in it hits his desk at some point in time. They office on the fourth floor here. We had a good relationship with Dr. DePinhos, well, with Mrs. DePinho while she was here.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Lynda Chin.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Because they had a lot of imaging needs.
Tacey A. Rosolowski, PhD:
Lynda Chin.
Donald A. Podoloff, MD:
Yeah. We have a strong relationship with the phase I program because they also have a lot of imaging needs and they are looking at molecular targets. So there’s a very nice fit there. In fact the administrator of CABI, Leslie Billings, came from that department. She was in that developmental department, phase I department, before it became what it is today.
Recommended Citation
Podoloff, Donald A. PhD and Rosolowski, Tacey A. PhD, "Chapter 16: The Center for Advanced Biomedical Imaging: More on the Story of Establishing CABI" (2015). Interview Chapters. 744.
https://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewchapters/744
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