Stronger Together
Redeemer Health in partnership with MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper revolutionizes cancer care at Holy Redeemer Hospital.
Imagine a trusted community hospital with a nearly 100-year reputation of providing exceptional health care. Imagine one of the region’s leading cancer centers staffed by a multidisciplinary team of physicians, researchers, and caregivers working hand in hand to diagnose, treat, and defeat cancer. Now imagine those two enterprises joining forces, and how such a collaboration would improve patients’ lives.
Residents of Philadelphia and surrounding areas no longer have to imagine such an alliance because it exists right in their backyard.
Redeemer Health in partnership with MD Anderson at Cooper is an integrated cancer program at Holy Redeemer Hospital in Meadowbrook. The partnership, announced in 2021, represents a full clinical integration of the two cancer programs. As a result, Redeemer Health patients will benefit from the same proven practice standards, advanced treatment, and robust educational resources offered by one of the region’s leading cancer centers.
MD Anderson at Cooper grew out of a 2013 partnership between Cooper University Health Care and MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. The partnership gave area residents access to the same cancer care delivered to patients at MD Anderson in Houston, as well as innovative diagnostic and treatment technologies and groundbreaking clinical research.
That same level of integrated, personalized cancer care is now available to the residents of Philadelphia, Montgomery, and Bucks counties, at Redeemer Health, according to Pallav K. Mehta, M.D., medical director of the cancer center and chief of hematology/oncology.
“Redeemer Health is the epitome of what a community hospital should be, offering expert medical care while maintaining the family feel that has made patients so loyal,” says Dr. Mehta, who is board certified in oncology, hematology, and integrative medicine. “This partnership is about maintaining the connection that so many people feel with Redeemer Health and their physicians. The community loves this institution; they believe in the doctors, and the doctors believe in the system. This is about optimizing care, while maintaining what has been so special about Holy Redeemer Hospital for such a long time.”
Dr. Mehta suggests the partnership will further advance cancer diagnostics and treatment at Redeemer Health, which has been caring for the community since 1924. Specifically, he cites the additions of brachytherapy, stereotactic radiation therapy, and robotic-assisted surgery, as well as immunotherapy, genomic testing, and access to pioneering clinical trials.
“Cancer care at Redeemer is now unified across all disciplines, with teams of physicians who all know each other, talk to each other, and work together to make the best decisions for patient care,” states Dr. Mehta. “Patients come to us with what they think is a life-threatening diagnosis, and for many of them, it is. Our job is to develop a plan and guide them through treatment and post treatment. I always say what we do here is not just about treating cancer; it’s about treating people.”
Exceptional Care, Close to Home
Redeemer Health in partnership with MD Anderson at Cooper has specialized programs focusing on breast, lung, gynecological, and colorectal cancers. The program offers comprehensive cancer care including hematology/oncology, radiation therapy, and surgery, among other treatments and services. The program continues to grow; additional hematology/oncology physicians are actively being recruited to join the program.
Redeemer Health in partnership with MD Anderson at Cooper has specialized programs focusing on breast, lung, gynecological, and colorectal cancers. The program offers comprehensive cancer care including hematology/oncology, radiation therapy, and surgery, among other treatments and services. The program continues to grow; additional hematology/oncology physicians are actively being recruited to join the program.
“We are now a more comprehensive cancer center that’s going to make sure we’re delivering outstanding care to patients,” adds William Scarlett, D.O., MHCM, FACS, FACOS, executive director of Redeemer Health in partnership with MD Anderson at Cooper and vice president of oncology services for Redeemer Health. “With access to groundbreaking research and leading cancer experts, we can further tailor our patients’ treatment to their unique needs and diagnoses.”
“With Redeemer Health in partnership with MD Anderson at Cooper, patients have multiple physicians working together to treat their cancer,” he continues. “That reality is very reassuring for patients.”
Dr. Scarlett describes the partnership between Redeemer Health and MD Anderson at Cooper as “unique” and driven by the multidisciplinary approach to patient care.
“Every patient’s case is reviewed by doctors from multiple specialties,” he says. “Before I see a patient as a plastic surgeon, the radiologist, pathologist, oncologist, breast surgeon, and radiation doctors have met together to discuss that individual’s plan of care. Then, if the patient is going to need radiation as part of their treatment, our physicians review the plan with radiation oncologists at Cooper as well as Houston. It’s not just the MD Anderson at Cooper name on a hospital sign; it’s new standards that have been set.”
Dr. Scarlett values the opportunity to use his skills as a board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon to help patients whose lives have been changed by cancer. He knows all too well how deeply cancer can affect not only the individual, but also the individual’s loved ones. Cancer has touched his own family.
“The majority of my patients are cancer patients,” he says. “I understand the challenges that they and their families are facing. That’s why I’m passionate about treating cancer patients in our community. Helping them move forward, after one of the worst times in their life, is extremely rewarding.”
Dr. Scarlett’s mantra is “restoring wholeness, mind, body, and spirit.” With the partnership between Redeemer Health and MD Anderson at Cooper, his ability—and that of his colleagues at Redeemer Health—to diagnose, treat and help patients recover from cancer has been taken to a whole new level.
This partnership brings cancer treatment options together with compassionate, personalized care to provide exceptional cancer care, close to home.
Redeemer Health in partnership with MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper
1648 Huntingdon Pike
Meadowbrook, PA 19046
(215) 938-3555
redeemerhealth.org/MDAndersonatCooper
1648 Huntingdon Pike
Meadowbrook, PA 19046
(215) 938-3555
redeemerhealth.org/MDAndersonatCooper
Photograph by Nina Lea Photography
Published (and copyrighted) in Suburban Life magazine, January 2022.
