By Charles Young, The Exponent Telegram
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Officials from WVU Medicine requested help from the state’s business community on Thursday as the heath care network sets out to achieve a prestigious designation.
The WVU Cancer Institute is working toward becoming the 73rd cancer center in the nation to be awarded an official designation from the National Cancer Institute, said Albert Wright, president and CEO of the WVU Health System.
“Let’s face it,” he said. “All of us know someone who’s been affected by cancer, and all us will know people affected in the future. So this is our job at the health system — to create a National Cancer Institute-designated center that the state of West Virginia deserves.”
Landing the designation, which is awarded through a complex process, requires commitment and investment from the state and the private sector, Wright said during the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting and Business Summit.
Achieving an NCI designation requires a “journey which is not short and not for the faint of heart,” said Beverly Ginsberg Cooper, managing director of Huron, a consulting firm working with WVU Medicine to achieve the designation.
“This is a very competitive process that requires a two-to-three thousand page grant (application), where every line talks about how you are meeting those requirements,” she said.
