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.