BY JIM THOMPSON
Friday, July 28, 2006
Published in the Athens Banner-Herald: May 17, 2003

Both Athens hospitals and the University of Georgia will play central roles in an initiative to provide enhanced cancer treatment, education and research in a 29-county area of east Georgia.

Athens Regional Medical Center, St. Mary's Hospital, UGA and the Medical College of Georgia and its associated hospital have joined together as the East Georgia Cancer Network [now the East Georgia Cancer Coalition], which will serve an area stretching from Screven County near Savannah to Franklin County in the edge of the north Georgia mountains.

The various entities brought themselves together under the umbrella of the Georgia Cancer Coalition, an initiative begun three years ago by former Gov. Roy Barnes aimed at making Georgia a national leader in cancer research and treatment.

On Thursday, the coalition announced that the East Georgia Cancer Network has been designated a Regional Program of Excellence, putting it in line for a share of the funding that will eventually be distributed throughout the state.
   
Funding for the network, and similar networks planned throughout the state, will come from Georgia's share of the 1998 settlement of a variety of cases across the nation in which states sought compensation from major tobacco companies for the costs of treating sick smokers.
   
The settlement is projected to produce more than $200 billion nationwide through 2025.
   
The Georgia Cancer Coalition will determine how much of Georgia's share of the money will come to the East Georgia Cancer Network.
   
The network should learn on July 1 how much money it will receive, according to Marilyn Hill, a former vice president at St. Mary's, now serving the hospital in a consulting role, who guided much of the work in getting the Athens and Augusta entities together.
   
The parties involved worked for 18 months to develop a grant proposal for submission to the Georgia Cancer Coalition.
   
According to Hill, the network has developed plans for more than 40 research, treatment and education initiatives, with a price tag of more than $100 million over three years.
  
 Whether the network gets funding for all of those initiatives won't be known until July 1. And in any case, tobacco settlement money will be limited to 40 percent of the network request. The network will have to find in-kind donations and other support to fund its work, Hill said.
   
Even with the funding questions remaining, Thursday's news that the East Georgia Cancer Network has been designated a Regional Program of Excellence was happily received in Athens.
   
''We are absolutely delighted ... to be able to bring this to the people of this area,'' Jack Drew, president and CEO of Athens Regional Medical Center, said Friday.
   
''It's a pretty big deal,'' Thomas E. Fitz Jr., president and CEO of St. Mary's Health Care System, said Friday.
   
Gordhan Patel, vice president for research at the University of Georgia, said a partnership between UGA and the Medical College of Georgia makes sense, with UGA's strength in basic research - there is already significant cancer-related research at UGA, he said - balanced with the clinical research capabilities at MCG.
   
The Georgia Cancer Coalition has given the UGA/MCG pairing a provisional designation as a Georgia Cancer Center for Excellence, but the coalition's president, Russ Toal, said Thursday that it should be possible for the schools to receive full designation.
   
''The schools have made tremendous progress ...,'' Toal said in a news release.
  
 ''We're excited to be designated, and now we're waiting to see how much money we'll get to do the job,'' Patel said.