Extending cancer care beyond the Front Range to rural and mountain communities

By Michele McKinney | CU system
and Erika Matich | CU Cancer Center

Physicians and staff of the University of Colorado Cancer Center in recent weeks traveled to hospitals beyond the Front Range to renew affiliate agreements with three outreach sites:

​St. Mary's Regional Cancer Center, Grand Junction; Shaw Regional Cancer Center at Vail Valley Medical Center, Edwards; and Calaway-Young Cancer Center at Valley View Hospital, Glenwood Springs.

These affiliate agreements represent a unique partnership between the University of Colorado School of Medicine physicians and Colorado communities that do not have access to certain types of health care in nearby regional hospitals. It is a partnership CU considers one of its ultimate outreach programs – partnering with local health facilities and physicians, sharing in the treatment of patients to improve and save lives.

Many Coloradans who live in remote areas have limited access to health care and must drive for miles to see a medical specialist, especially an oncologist.

“One of the goals of the University of Colorado Cancer Center is to bring the latest in cancer care and clinical trials to people in remote areas of Colorado," said Dan Theodorescu, M.D., Ph.D., at left. “We need hospital and local physician partners across the state to make this happen. Without the help of our outreach affiliate sites, we would not be able to share our expertise on this scale.”

Another benefit CU brings to these communities is increased access to ongoing phase 1 clinical trials that are testing the latest drugs. The clinical trials are sponsored by the National Cancer Institute at the CU Cancer Center, which is the only comprehensive cancer center in the Rocky Mountain region to earn that prestigious designation from the National Cancer Institute.

“One of CU’s untold stories is the immense amount of outreach our campuses provide to people and places in Colorado,” said CU Regent Glen Gallegos, a Grand Junction resident elected to represent Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District. “The physicians at the CU Cancer Center travel to provide services to patients in communities that do not have access to this level of critical care. The patients don’t have to travel to Denver – CU comes to them, to serve them.”

For nearly three decades, CU physicians whose specialties range from oncology to neurosurgery and cardiology have traveled to medical facilities beyond the Front Range, including rural or mountain-area communities.

Besides cancer care and clinical trials, physicians take part in multi-disciplinary video tumor boards to discuss interesting and unusual cases. This allows physicians from all sites to collaborate with one another and with specialists from the CU Cancer Center. The intent of the tumor boards is to enhance collaboration and education.

Physicians from the outreach sites also visit the CU Cancer Center at the CU Anschutz Medical Campus on an ongoing basis to strengthen communication, relationships and collaboration. Physicians from the CU Cancer Center also visit the outreach sites on a regular basis to collaborate with community physicians.

“Through our interactions with the colleagues at our affiliates, we not only gain knowledge of the challenges and research opportunities they have – in many cases we also have discovered new ways to approach education and research that we can apply here at the Anschutz Medical Campus,” said Michael Glodé, M.D., associate director of community engagement for the CU Cancer Center.

As part of the president’s CU For Colorado campaign, the CU Cancer Center and CU School of Medicine are presenting branded lobby signs to hospitals where the university has outreach partnerships to symbolize the pride the university has in serving health care needs in those Colorado communities. The CU School of Medicine through University Physicians Inc., which oversees hundreds of outreach agreements, plans to present 50 of the branded lobby signs to medical facilities over the next several months.

Click to see photos of CU Cancer Center physicians and staff presenting the branded lobby signs to outreach hospitals, where several elected officials attended some of the ceremonies. Photo at top, from left, Mark Hancock, the primary oncologist at St. Mary’s and medical director of the Regional Cancer Center; CU Regent Glen Gallegos of Colorado’s 3rd Congressional District; Tom Purcell, M.D., MBA, Associate Director for Clinical Services of the CU Cancer Center and Executive Medical Director of Oncology Services at University of Colorado Hospital; and Mark F. Kochevar, MBA, Associate Director for Administration and Finance for the CU Cancer Center.