A New Partnership between Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and North General Hospital
After a day of showers, the sun came out in time to grace the May 1 ceremonies marking the opening of the Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention, a partnership between Memorial Sloan-Kettering and North General Hospital in Harlem. Some 300 guests attended the event in Marcus Garvey Park, in East Harlem, a block from the center. The New York Harlem Gospel Choir opened the festivities with a soul-stirring rendition of "This Little Light of Mine," and the celebratory mood continued throughout an afternoon characterized by ebullient spirits and hope.
The Ralph Lauren Center for Cancer Care and Prevention, established by a generous gift from the Polo Ralph Lauren Corporation, offers the medically underserved, predominantly minority population of Harlem access to the highest-quality cancer screening and treatment services. Harold P. Freeman is medical director of the center; joining him are medical oncologists Jenny Romero and Joseph P. Yoe, and breast surgeon Henry Godfrey. Speaking before the ceremonies, Dr. Romero noted, "This joint venture is going to give the people of Harlem the absolute best oncology care that you can get. People will look at us in years to come as a model."
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Ralph Lauren (left) shakes hands with Harold Freeman, Medical Director of the new center
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In his welcoming remarks, Memorial Sloan-Kettering President Harold Varmus said, "We're going to bring people to the clinic and help them navigate through the shoals of cancer care, screening, and treatment." In addition to prevention and screening services for colon, prostate, cervical, and breast cancers, the center's specialists provide state-of-the-art outpatient treatment for a wide range of cancers as well as pain management and palliative care. The center offers culturally sensitive patient care and a bilingual staff, and research will advance the understanding of the cultural factors that influence cancer care and health outcomes of medically underserved communities.
One of the center's most innovative services is patient navigators — a concept pioneered by Dr. Freeman, a national authority on the relationships among race, poverty, and cancer. Patient navigators assist patients and family members to ensure that they are not lost in the complexities of the healthcare system. "The Patient Navigator Program specifically concentrates on the interval between a positive finding — which may mean a person has cancer — and the resolution of that finding, whatever the resolution is," said Dr. Freeman in an interview before the Center's opening. "If you're going to have an effect on cancer, particularly in a poor community, you've got to have it up front — in other words, in that interval between getting people in to have a test and then getting them to further diagnosis and treatment, should they need it." Patient navigators assist individuals with a broad range of issues — from managing financial and insurance hurdles, to helping with communication and information challenges, to coping with fear and emotional concerns.
In his remarks, Ralph Lauren acknowledged the "efforts, the care, and the love of everyone who worked so hard to see that the center came into being. This is not the end, but the beginning of a long fight for all of us."
