Welcome everyone to the Becker's Healthcare podcast series.
I'm Ryan Mohammed, writer and moderator with Becker's
Healthcare.
I am thrilled to have with me today
two special guests, Tom, vice president of of
operations at OSF Healthcare Cancer Institute, and Teneal,
director of operations at OSF Healthcare Care Cancer
Institute. Tom Teneal, welcome to the podcast. We're
very excited to have you join us today.
To get us started, would you mind please
introducing yourselves and telling us a bit about
your background?
Tom, do you mind starting with you?
Sure. My name is Tom Cox. I'm the
vice president of operations of the Cancer Institute.
Institute. I started my career in radiology,
actually, but over the years probably the last
fifteen years, I've been involved in oncology
and the development of the Cancer Institute, and
I really kind of oversee the strategic direction
of the Cancer Institute.
Wonderful. Thank you so much for that. And
then, Tenille?
Hi, everyone. My name is Tenille Oderwald. I'm
the director of operations here at the Cancer
Institute. I've been with Saint Francis for just
about twenty eight years. All in always working
in oncology care,
from a floor nurse to navigation
and now into a leadership role,
as the director of operations.
Wonderful. Thank you both for giving us that
background. So jumping into the conversation today, what
innovative ways is OSF HealthCare
providing world class cancer care to patients?
Tom, Teneal,
either one of you, please jump in.
Sure. From an innovation perspective,
there's quite a few things that we brought
to the community that that we have not
had before.
I'll start by talking about our brachytherapy
suite. Brachytherapy is a type of therapy,
where we're able to introduce
needle applicators and put high dose radiation
into the body, into the tumor area, and
treat that. We have a brachytherapy
suite that's got an integrated CT on rails,
and we're able to really create a very
efficient process and a good patient,
experience. We also have artificial intelligence that reads
all of our radiology reports and pulls out
follow ups that need to be done and
pulls out suspicious lesions so that we can
make sure that,
those lesions are addressed.
We have a a a coordinator who who
follows that. And and if there is a
suspicious lesion, we'll get it into our
rapid,
clinic to be assessed and diagnosed right away.
We've also brought proton therapy into the community,
which is bringing patients from further away and
allows us to treat some patients that we
may have had to not to turn away
and not be able to use radiation therapy
on.
Got it. Got it. Thank you so much
for, answering that. Taneal, did you have anything,
to add there?
Sure. So, you know, really, the whole building
is filled with innovative ways, that we are
offering that world class cancer care to patients.
When we
sat down to really look at the workflows
and designs of the bath of of the
building
and pathways of the patients, it really sets
us apart from others, I believe.
You know, we really have focused on that
patient experience
and that ease for patients.
So for instance, when a patient has a
diagnosis, there's many times they need a lot
of additional imaging that's being completed.
May they may need a PET scan. They
may need an MRI.
And
before, these were always done on different days.
So,
what we decide
to do is really develop a workflow for
patients that when they come in, they can
get all of their imaging done in one
day.
It's called our stack testing.
So, this has allowed patients
to have that timeliness to treatment,
getting that,
staging workup that's needed so quickly,
completed,
really decreasing
that, those sleepless nights,
that patients often endure,
waiting for those results and a treatment plan
to form. So really excited that we're able
to offer that for most of our cancer
types.
Also, you know, multidisciplinary
approach is a really high priority for us
here at the Cancer Institute.
So,
making sure that we have when patients come
here, it's that one stop shop where they
can meet with the radiation oncologist, their surgeon,
medical oncologist, their nurse navigator,
all in one day,
to get that information that they need to
really start that treatment plan and and a
follow-up,
course of action.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you so much for
giving us that information. Sounds, obviously,
as a great improvement.
And recently, you've announced some, some new physician
hires that are offering new expertise at the
Cancer Institute. Can you tell us a little
bit more about that?
Absolutely.
We are very proud of the physicians that
we have, the depth of physicians,
their expertise.
In particular,
we recently hired a surgical oncologist who's brought
HIPEC technology to our community,
and that's a surgical procedure that's used to
treat advanced abdominal cancers that have spread to
the lining of the abdomen. So the the
surgeon will go in and remove those tumors,
and that is followed by sixty to ninety
minutes of,
heated chemotherapy
that circulates through the abdominal cavity to make
sure that we kill off any of those
cancer cells that the the surgeon may not
have seen when they were moving the tumors.
So that's one technology that we've brought here.
From a depth of talent perspective, we have
two very good head and neck cancer surgeons,
three breast surgeons,
or gynecological
oncologist,
very talented physicians. Those are those are hard
to find. We're blessed to have those in
the community.
We have two hepatopancreatobiliary
surgeons.
We do
amount the amount of pancreatic
cancer surgeries that we do compares to anyone
in the state and really anyone in the
nation. We do a lot of those surgeries.
We have two thoracic surgeons that,
are are actually in the ninety ninth percentile
in terms of outcome
with the Thoracic Surgery,
Association.
So very talented,
surgeons.
We also have a radiation oncologist that has
proton therapy that has come to our community,
proton therapy experience.
And that's really helped us, build out our
proton therapy,
program even more.
So, again, we are proud of that that
depth, and we're building more depth of providers,
every day.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And, Teneal,
would you like to add anything there? And
if not,
looking towards the future, what's coming
soon at the OSF Cancer Institute?
Yeah. So, we are,
having a lot of big focus on prevention
and early detection,
with cancer. We don't wanna just be there
at a diagnosis. We wanna make sure that
we're,
maybe helping prevent a cancer from occurring or
finding it as early as possible. So we're
putting a lot of measures
and initiatives towards early detection and education
surrounding what a patient's risk risk is.
We have a high risk and genetic clinic
that,
screens patients and assesses what their risks are.
And for those that are at a higher
risk, putting them on a plan to,
for extra screening
and teaching them more about nutrition and exercise
and how that can really impact your cancer
risk.
Yeah. Yeah. Definitely. Thank you so much for
giving us that information.
Tom,
if I could ask, how has the OSF
Cancer Institute become a destination center for cancer
care, do you think?
So
I just wanna talk a little bit about
the type of destination center that we really
want to be,
that we that I feel we are and
that we're gonna continue to grow in.
Many destination
center you know, if you're a destination center
that somebody has to get on a plane
and come see you, what you're essentially doing
is you're gonna treat disease.
They come there, you have great expertise, you
treat the disease, they go back home. You're
not really involved with survivorship,
you're not really involved with cancer control in
general.
For us, what we are doing here in
Peoria and throughout the midsection of the state
is we're really trying to to partner
with the communities around us, not just OSF
communities, but all communities in cancer control.
How do we work together to help people
understand what what what may cause cancer?
What are what is your genetic risk of
cancer? How do we mitigate that risk?
Where are you with early detection? Are you
getting your screenings?
We wanna raise awareness with screening.
If you do have a suspicion, we wanna
make it easy to get in and get
diagnosed and staged,
and we wanna work with the communities around
us to make sure that, we share our
expertise,
but also that as much treatment
can be done locally as possible. Sick people
don't necessarily wanna get in a car. So
if they're able to get treatment,
locally, we wanna work with our OSF communities
and non OSF communities to build up what
they're able to do
in less complex cancer care. And then the
tools we have at the Cancer Institute are
available
if if, they do not have that particular
tool in the community. So those complex cases
can come here and see our head and
neck,
surgeons. Our gynec,
can have HIPEC surgery,
can have proton therapy, can utilize that brachytherapy
suite. So we wanna walk the path
before you even have cancer and to help
you prevent it, to help you find it
early, to help you get treatment, and then
on into survivorship.
That's really what we're gonna hang our hat
on as a destination center, and I think
that's a little different
than, again, those sites where you might say,
I need to get on a plane and
go somewhere,
to get treatment. We we wanna be walking
the path with the communities around us,
from from prevention through survivorship.
Just to piggyback onto that, you know, we
we really have that expertise,
and the skills from our treating providers from
surgery to radiation oncology.
They are just top notch.
We are really bringing a new side of
hope. And with the new clinical trials,
we have the latest and greatest in the
imaging devices, our brachysuite and proton therapy that
Tom talked about are the best of their
kind.
We don't want patients to ever feel like
they have to leave to get innovative new
treatments.
We want them close to home. We want
them by their families. We want them with
their friends and that support that they still
need.
We have just an amazing supportive staff from
our nurse navigators, our dietitians,
our counselors, our social workers,
our skilled advanced,
practice providers and our clinics. I mean, it's
just amazing what we're here what we have
here and offering to our community.
Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And I guess going a
little bit further into that, in terms of
community health, how does OSF Cancer Institute play
a role into that?
You know, I think that, we really are
known for experts in the community,
on cancer care.
We do a lot in the community with
our screening days, having patients come in and
get all of their screenings done in one
day, come get your mammogram, a low dose
CT,
have a skin cancer check,
and have education.
Know what your risk is.
We have such education,
with our our staff. You know, they're frequent
visitors to our local TV stations just talking
about screening and the importance of nutrition and
exercise.
But we have a teaching kitchen here at
the Cancer Institute,
and this is ran by our dietitians.
They can sit down with the patient and
give them all the clinical information that they
need, But that teaching kitchen really is where
it comes alive. It's a hands on approach
of
having them learn how to,
make healthy recipes,
for those that have had a diagnosis of
cancer.
What is the important things for them to
eat and,
to maintain their health during their treatments and
post treatment as well too?
One thing that I wanted to add to
that as well is is just the culture
in the Cancer Institute, both in the building
and the programs that kinda emanate from this
building.
You can feel it when you walk into
that building that everybody there,
is dedicated to being advocates for cancer patients.
Anyone who works in the building has gone
through training about what are the unique needs
of cancer patients,
what of the what services we've arrayed to
help them, and Teneal's gone over quite a
few of those. And we've asked them to
feel empowered to ask.
Is there anything you need? Is there anything
we can do to help you? And if
we see a need,
we try to find that that support service
that will fill that need. If somebody is
having trouble with transportation, if they're having trouble
with food insecurity, whatever it may be, we
have the resources to help, and everybody feels
very much empowered,
to seek out that help and to align
that support with the need.
Yeah. Yeah. For sure. That that sounds amazing,
and I just love all the help that
that is offered.
And, I guess, adding on to that, how
do the teams at the Cancer Institute help
patients, not just during the cancer treatment, like
you all explained wonderfully, but even after, would
you
explained wonderfully, but even after, would you think?
So I'll let Teneal,
talk about our our we have a robust
survivorship program. I just wanna say very quickly
once again,
that we feel like we are gonna walk
next to our community members through that whole
cancer continuum.
Not just treating and after treating,
but helping you prevent cancer, helping you find
it early, helping you understand your genetic risk.
And then, yes, have all of those robust
treatments,
and then, Danilo will talk about, just a
tremendous survivorship program that that she has built.
So our support does not end after a
cancer diagnosis.
Patients are surviving and they're thriving after cancer,
but it can really play a toll on
a patient's body.
We have put together a team of experts
that really focus on life after cancer.
Our start program, which is surviving, thriving, and
recovering together,
has nurse navigators,
who are especially trained in life after cancer.
We have counselors, we have dietitians,
exercise specialists to really help patients recover after
treatment.
They're checking in with patients and assessing for
physical, emotional, and financial needs,
post treatment, and then getting them into those
resources that we talked about earlier.
After that last treatment occurs, a light switch
doesn't
go off and light doesn't go back to
normal. So recovering from cancer can be really
hard and difficult, and, we really wanna wrap
our arms around these patients and be with
them at every step of the way.
Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Thank you so much for
giving us those final thoughts. It's definitely been
a very informative discussion. So I wanna thank
both of you for coming on Becker's Healthcare,
and speaking with me today. And I look
forward to connecting with you both again soon.
Thanks for having us. Thank you very much.