Contact: Sarah Avery
Phone: 919-660-1306
Email: sarah.avery@duke.edu
http://dukehealthnews.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE on Tuesday, April 18, 2017

Duke Health and WakeMed Agree to Collaborate on Cancer Care in Wake County 

DURHAM, N.C. -- Duke Health and WakeMed Health & Hospitals have announced the signing of agreements to create Cancer Care Plus+, an innovative cancer care collaboration that will serve the growing cancer care needs of patients in Wake County. Cancer Care Plus+ will become effective May 1, 2017.    

Similar to the Heart Care Plus+ collaboration announced by Duke and WakeMed in mid-February, Cancer Care Plus+ is designed to enhance the commitments of both organizations to population health management and delivery of easily accessible value-based cancer care throughout Wake County.

Cancer Care Plus+ will be anchored at Duke Raleigh Hospital and will combine a variety of Wake County-based Duke Cancer Institute specialty services, locations and cancer clinical research programs with the surgical cancer capabilities at WakeMed’s hospitals in Raleigh and Cary. Cancer Care Plus+ will create a programmatic cancer service throughout the WakeMed system that will coordinate with the Duke Cancer Institute.

“This is an exciting and important collaboration with WakeMed that we believe will greatly benefit cancer patients and their families in Wake County and neighboring communities,” said Michael Kastan, M.D., Ph.D., executive director of the Duke Cancer Institute. “Cancer Care Plus+ will streamline the screening and access of cancer patients in Wake County to Duke’s broad portfolio of innovative cancer clinical trials, increase multi-disciplinary team cancer capabilities, and increase access to supportive care services such as hereditary and genetic counseling.”    

As with Heart Care Plus+, Cancer Care Plus+ does not represent a merger of the two organizations. Both organizations will retain their full independence and identities.

“In the case of both of these collaborations with WakeMed, the physicians from both organizations have been engaged in setting the vision for what they can become in working together to enhance the quality of heart and cancer care for patients throughout Wake County,” said William J. Fulkerson, Jr., M.D., executive vice president of Duke University Health System.  

In February, Duke Health and WakeMed announced the Heart Care Plus+ relationship. That effort brought together Duke’s recognized specialty and sub-specialty services and physicians with WakeMed’s legacy for excellence in heart care through the WakeMed Heart Center and its network of physician practices throughout Wake County.

“Working together with our colleagues at Duke to streamline, enhance and expand the delivery of oncology care in Wake County is an exciting development that meets a critical need for patients, caregivers and the communities we serve,” said Donald Gintzig, WakeMed president and chief executive officer. “This agreement supports both WakeMed and Duke’s commitment to improving the scope, quality and value of care we offer to our patients and their families through innovative and cooperative collaborations with like-minded organizations.”