The center also opened its radiation therapy program several years ago. Those patients are now being treated in offices on USA's main campus in west Mobile, Boyd said.
Patients come to the cancer center either from doctor referrals or from self-referrals, Boyd said.
"We haven't been real aggressive in advertising at this point because we wanted to be cautious and not stick our heads out too far until we had the capacity to handle patient volume," Boyd said.
Institute physicians and researchers already meet in groups to discuss some of the center's most challenging cases, Boyd said, but staff interaction will increase tremendously once everyone is together in one place.
The administrative offices for all researchers and doctors will be located across a small hall from each other, and the offices are adjacent to a large common area.
"The heart-and-soul philosophy of this building is that intermingling of doctors and scientists," Boyd said. "That's not always necessary, but often it is in the more complicated situations.
"All too often, it's a more typical situation where cancer care is more fragmented," Boyd said. "It (the institute) is a multidisciplinary approach that's pretty much key to state-of-the-art cancer care this day." |
