Community leaders and healthcare professionals braved the chilly temperatures Wednesday to attend a groundbreaking ceremony for the five-story addition to the Morehead Medical Plaza II building for the Levine Cancer Institute in Charlotte.
The Leon Levine Foundation donated $20 million in October for the creation of the Levine Cancer Institute. The new Institute promises to approach patient care with the most current innovations in the country. The addition will house research and treatment facilities, as well as the administrative headquarters of Levine Institute.
“Senior leaders at Carolinas HealthCare System wanted to see the excellence of a major cancer center distributed throughout the whole system,” Dr. Derek Raghavan said.
Raghavan, who previously led the Taussig Cancer Center at the Cleveland Clinic, will take over as president of the Institute on April 4.
“If anyone walks into any CHS facility that falls under the Levine Cancer Institute umbrella, we want the level of care to be of comparable quality,” Raghavan said. “Carolinas HealthCare System has created a great opportunity to use community-based care to address demographic and geographic disparities in treatment. I’m looking forward to collaborating with the talented clinical teams across our System to make meaningful progress in this regard.”
CHS officials explained that while the institute would be headquartered in Charlotte at the new Morehead addition, it will function as a series of “integrated units throughout the system, and work closely with CHS-affiliated organizations to enhance the quality and convenience of cancer care.”
“People have asked whether the new facility in Charlotte will serve as a kind of ‘brain center.’ The answer is no,” Raghavan said. “We will certainly be a center for communications and information-sharing, but the brainpower is and will remain well-distributed geographically among our affiliated treatment facilities throughout the Carolinas.”
The Levine Cancer Institute will spread access to the 32 hospitals owned or managed by the CHS, including CMC-NorthEast in Concord. This will mean greater access to cancer specialists, treatment and research and support services for patients living in smaller communities.
Contact reporter Robin L. Gardner: 704-789-9140.
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