Dr. Lowell Schnipper, head of the Oncology/Hematology Department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

Wockhardt plans multidisciplinary oncology program

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Wockhardt Hospitals, Ltd. is moving forward on plans to develop a multidisciplinary oncology program that will be housed in a new wing of the Mulund facility in Mumbai. The new program will initially serve as the anchor for cancer services across the Wockhardt network.

In September, Dr. Regis de Silva, PHMI Director, and Dr. Lowell Schnipper, head of the Oncology/Hematology Department at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, conducted a site visit to Wockhardt in order to advise on the oncology program and provide input into the infrastructure and resources required to launch a bone marrow transplantation (BMT) and an adult stem cell program.

The Mulund hospital is a relatively new facility. It opened in 2003 and just two years later became the first hospital in the Wockhardt network to be accredited by Joint Commission International. It is well equipped with advanced imaging and intensive care facilities, making it a suitable home for highly specialized medical programs such as oncology. It is expected that the multidisciplinary oncology program will have a new Linear Particle Accelerator (LINAC), two new inpatient medical oncology units (one for standard oncological care and the other for bone marrow transplantation), as well as a dedicated post-BMT outpatient unit and a general medical oncology ambulatory unit.

While in Mumbai Dr. Schnipper, who is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, gave a lecture, entitled “Personalized Cancer Care: A New Paradigm,” that was attended by 300 area oncologists.