Chapter 07: Global Institutional Partnerships

Chapter 07: Global Institutional Partnerships

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Description

In this chapter, Ms. Hay talks about her role in the development of opportunities for global partnerships, beginning with the American Hospital in Istanbul, Turkey in 2006, where there was no oncology program. She talks about building a basis for MD Anderson quality abroad and traces issues involved in opening the co-branded facility ion 2010. She notes that it “works seamlessly” and that plans are underway to expand this relationship so it can operate as a regional center.

Identifier

HayAC_01_20150204_C07

Publication Date

2-4-2015

City

Houston, Texas

Topics Covered

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center - Beyond the Institution; Professional Path; The Administrator; Institutional Processes; The Business of MD Anderson; Building/Transforming the Institution; Leadership; On Leadership; This is MD Anderson; MD Anderson Culture; Entrepreneurs, Biotechnology; Beyond the Institution; Global Issues –Cancer, Health, Medicine

Transcript

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Interesting. Yeah, very interesting. Just kind of a little follow-up question. I mean, you obviously are a very global thinker. When did you know that about yourself?

Amy Carpenter Hay:

Hm. It probably started during protons. You know, the year that I spent going back and forth with Japan, I was oftentimes, most often, traveling alone. Japan is—and I love the country. It’s beautiful. I miss it, in fact. But I always tease people, if you’ve not seen the move Lost in Translation, it’s very much like that. You can very easily get isolated. And having that exposure at a fairly young age was—it really defined my attraction to kind of the global environment. You know, protons opened up that door. And while I was at the Proton Center, I got more involved in that. And that—that’s kind of the next page to the story. As I was over there, my colleague and I started to get interested in what was going on internationally. So, through protons, we started—at annual meetings we started meeting people and listening. And I found it completely fascinating, looking at the level of cancer care on a worldwide basis, and who was doing what, and who was investing, and looking at models of care. So, while I was at protons, I got very interested in two different opportunities. One was in Turkey, with American Hospital. MD Anderson had set up, at that time, a storefront, if you will, to educate patients on coming to MD Anderson. It wasn’t very successful. We don’t—not many patients came over. But it was interesting to me. It was fascinating. And so, I started—I got introduced to the head of American Hospital—the CEO. His name is Dr. Evren Keles, and he’s now actually the dean of the medical school there, as well. And American Hospital is owned by the KOC Foundation in Turkey, one of the leading families. And I started a dialogue with them. They didn’t have radiation oncology. They had good medical oncology and surgery, but they didn’t know how to do radiation oncology. And so—

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

That’s kind of a jaw-dropper, isn’t it? [laughter]

Amy Carpenter Hay:

Exactly. And so, here I am, very interested in international and global, finding these people that are unbelievably delightful. And my background’s in radiation oncology. So, developed a rapport there, and ultimately started working with them. And I said, “I’ll tell you what. Let’s start small. Let’s—we’ll—with MD Anderson, we’ll sign a consulting agreement and I’ll just provide you consulting. I’ll tell you how to do it, what to do, what equipment to buy, and all that sort of thing.” And that started, and as the facility was being built in Turkey, they said, “And we’d really like to take it one step further. We’d really like to ensure that we deliver MD Anderson quality in radiation.” Again, this was new. This was—and we’d just—we’d just stepped out of MD Anderson in Bellaire, and by now we had Polly Ryon and Sugarland, and were working on expanding regional. We’re—this was—this was new.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

And this—it—in Turkey, what were the years of this—the first conversations?

Amy Carpenter Hay:

The first conversations were probably around 2006.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Okay. And so, when were they approaching you about a more formal relationship?

Amy Carpenter Hay:

Relationship. It was several years. Let’s see—it is, today, 2015. They’ve been operating five years, so the center started treating patients in 2010. So, it was about, probably, ’08 or so. They started talking about it, but here was the dilemma: the dilemma was that, in Turkey, you can only practice medicine if you’re a Turkish citizen. So, we needed a doctor. Again, back to needed a doctor. At the time, we had a doctor at MD Anderson, doing his fellowship, from Turkey—Dr. Ugur Selek—fantastic man, wanted to go home. And it was almost—it was—it almost fell together. So now I have a doctor. So, I engaged Dr. Selek, and he was—couldn’t be happier. He [coughs] [inaudible]—

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

I’ll pause just for a second. [The recorder is paused]

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

[inaudible] we resume?

Amy Carpenter Hay:

Yes.

Tacey Ann Rosolowski, PhD:

Okay, we’re back on after a couple of minutes of a break.

Amy Carpenter Hay:

So, Dr. Selek is—was a perfect fit: Turkish citizen, trained with us. And so, right around 2010, we opened the facility there as a co-branded radiation-oncology center, with Dr. Selek running the operations. It seamlessly works with MD Anderson. We set it up in such a fashion that all of the systems go into MD Anderson, meaning the treatment plans, and everything. So, it almost functions as if it is down the street, and it’s in Istanbul, Turkey. It’s a—very proud of that transaction. And five years later, we’ve now added a second physician who came in, did some training with us. And they are looking to expand our relationship. So that was kind of the first opportunity outside of MD Anderson. You know, we were able to do that based on our ability to not only implement but also operate all of the regional centers around Houston. And we were really starting, at that time, to kind of push the envelope of what should we be doing on a national level. So, while this was just radiation oncology, it kind of opened up a whole new area of opportunity. It was small. It was tightly controlled. The quality was—every single definitive case, still, to this day, is reviewed here. Every single case. But it was a really nice example of the fact that we could do this. We could extend ourselves in our backyard, and we could extend ourselves internationally in a very thoughtful, methodical way. I really do think, based on that going well, we were able to do not only expansion internationally, but also to start looking at the US.

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Chapter 07: Global Institutional Partnerships

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