News

St. Joseph Hospital today announced that it will have some top-notch help in tackling cancer care, research, training and education. Stanford Medicine is partnering with St. Joe's to provide a variety of services including telemedicine conferences with experts, training for local clinician staff and access to clinical trials.

That last item could eliminate some frustrating and time-consuming road trips. According to a press release, "The clinical trials will offer patients at St. Joseph Hospital access to state-of-the-art treatment that currently requires travel to the San Francisco area for enrollment."

Here's the full announcement from St. Joe's:

St. Joseph Hospital is pleased to announce a new and exciting collaboration with Stanford Medicine. The relationship will involve a series of projects related to cancer care, clinical research and education – all with the goal of continuing to provide local patients with  the highest quality cancer care possible.

The collaboration includes: a new cancer telemedicine tumor board program; access to cancer clinical trials; and access to educational programs at Stanford for St. Joseph Hospital physicians and staff. The tumor board program is a formal way for a multi-disciplinary group of physicians to discuss treatment options for complex or rare cancers. This new relationship allows us to use telemedicine technology to present local cancer cases to physicians at Stanford via WebEx. The program will launch with gynecologic oncology cases.

Additionally, Stanford will provide St. Joseph Hospital access to cancer clinical trials and will assist in the training of clinical research staff. Clinical trials are protocols for cancers that do not respond to routine treatments. The clinical trials will offer patients at St. Joseph Hospital access to state-of-the-art treatment that currently requires travel to the San Francisco area for enrollment.

Leaders from St. Joseph Hospital and Stanford joined together at a special reception on Friday, December 6 in Eureka to formally announce the collaboration to local physicians and members of the community. Although Stanford will have no direct involvement in patient care at St. Joseph Hospital, their partnership will provide valuable resources to physicians and patients at our hospital.

“We are very excited to begin this new collaboration with Stanford,” said David O’Brien, MD, President of St. Joseph and Redwood Memorial Hospitals. “The tumor board program and clinical trials with Stanford present new opportunities for our hospital to advance cancer care for patients in our community.”

Douglas W. Blayney, MD, the Ann and John Doerr Medical Director of the Stanford Cancer Center and professor of Medical Oncology at the Stanford University School of Medicine said “We are very excited about the collaboration between St. Joseph Hospital and Stanford Medicine. Stanford's mission is "to care, to educate and to discover." Our partnership with the hospital will involve a series of innovative cancer projects that touch all three areas of this mission."