Dear Cancer Center community:
It is always good, if not satisfying, to recognize that every hour and ounce of effort was worth it in any endeavor.
The 18-month effort of the renewal of the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center concluded around 3:30 on Wednesday afternoon in Tinkham Veale.
The efforts of 4 institutional leaders, 6 Case Cabinet leaders, 2 deputy directors, 11 Executive Committee members, 15 Program Leaders, 37 Shared Resource leaders, 7 physician leaders of clinical investigation, 12 senior clinical research office and trials unit staff, 17 cancer center administrative staff, plus caterers, AV managers, and me, came together for simply outstanding efforts. This effort represents our institutions, our 370 members, and all of our staff and patients participating in clinical trials.
After submitting 2500 pages of documents and an equal number of documents prepared for the Site Visit (60 copies each!) plus countless revisions to 242 slides, we had our final product waiting for peer review.
We hosted 21 reviewers with 3 NCI observers who spent Tuesday to Thursday reviewing us and preparing their report (available with a score by our holiday party December 15).
All of our presentations were perfect: informed, on time, coherent, with exceptional evidence of impact, scientific discovery, paradigm shift, clinical innovation and policy effect that included attention to our catchment area, and strong evidence of attention to training.
Our Site Visitors greatly appreciated our Center, new to all of them, and over the course of the day appreciated the complexity and impact of a functional consortium cancer center. While they asked tough questions, they never raised concerns with our science, the quality of our shared resources, our organization, or our leadership. Instead, they were overwhelmed with quality, coordination and our depth and breadth. We hit every checkbox with ease.
The feedback I received was very appreciative of our efforts and of the individual and collective efforts of all involved.
I am confident that our final report will be very positive and that we will all be proud of our contributions.
Going forward, I look forward to our trajectory, our imminent investments, our consortium collaborations and the research initiatives that will our focus over the next 6 months.
Thank you for letting me distract you from your daily activities over the course of the past 18 months. I look forward to the next one!