By: Deborah Johnson Wood
Dr. Julie Forstner, assistant professor of radiation oncology at the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor, recently landed the top job as head of radiation oncology services for the Cancer Center at Metro Health Village. Metro Health joined the U-M Radiation Oncology Network in June, the seventh health care center in the state to do so, creating the job and a host of new services for West Michigan cancer patients.
The venture enables cancer patients to receive radiation therapy guided by Forstner and a team of cancer specialists at U-M without having to travel to Ann Arbor for treatment.
The team of physicians from the radiation oncology centers communicates via video conferencing and through computer links. Every case is reviewed by the team of specialists within the Radiation Oncology Network before treatment begins.
“I can talk to, and see, any physician anywhere in the system on one screen, and, at the same time, we can both review and discuss a patient’s test results that are on another screen,” Forstner says.
The Cancer Center provides radiation oncology for a wide variety of cancers, including head and neck, breast cancer, liver cancer. lymphomas and others.
Forstner, 40, has done radiation oncology at Spectrum Health since 1997.
“I think what’s special about what we offer here [through the Radiation Oncology Network] is the experience of how to use the various types of radiation equipment,” she says. “Some of the team members have studied it from the very beginning and give the talks and are the experts. I come to this with my own experience and abilities, but I’m also able to learn from the experts in the field.”
Source: Julie Forstner, M.D., Cancer Center at Metro Health Village and University of Michigan Medical School
Deborah Johnson Wood is development news editor for Rapid Growth Media. She can be contacted at [email protected].
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