MUSC Hollings Cancer Network announces Tidelands Health as first full affiliate

Charleston, S.C., (Jan. 5, 2023) –MUSC Health andTidelandsHealth are expanding their years-long collaboration with the naming ofTidelandsHealth Cancer Care Network as the first full MUSC Hollings Cancer Network affiliate. This affiliation expands the relationship between the two organizations by creating a community-based hub-and-spoke cancer care delivery model. Providing this fully integrated approach will offer additional clinical and direct patient benefits in addition to enhanced connectivity to MUSC’s research and education expertise.

“This cancer affiliation network is the first of its kind in South Carolina and is a full extension of the healing power offered through nationally designated cancer centers such as the Hollings Cancer Center,” said Ray DuBois, M.D., Ph.D., MUSC Hollings Cancer Center director. “Membership in this network is a testament to an organization’s commitment to bringing more care and treatment options and greater access to ground-breaking clinical trials to the communities they serve. In addition, this affiliation helps to ensure that the next generation of clinicians, scientists, and faculty learn from what we do today and then seek the next level in comprehensive cancer care tomorrow.”

Some specific cancer care benefits of the affiliation include:

• Access to a full complement of community-based medical, surgical, and radiation oncology specialists
• Care navigation support from initial diagnosis through treatment
• Access to the latest evidence-based standards of care, nationally recognized cancer experts and genetic testing
• Clinical trial and research study participation closer to home
• Enhanced sharing of electronic medical records, ensuring that all multidisciplinary care team providers have access to the same medical records

Bruce Bailey, president and CEO ofTidelandsHealth, said participation in the new MUSC Hollings Cancer Network builds upon the broad complement of cancer care services already offered by theTidelandsHealth Cancer Care Network, the Grand Strand area’s most advanced provider of cancer care.

“No one ever wants to hear the words, ‘You have cancer,’” Bailey said. “But that’s a reality thousands of people across our state face every year. Through the newly established MUSC Hollings Cancer Network, the highly skilled, compassionate experts at MUSC Health andTidelandsHealth are standing together to help our cancer patients become cancer survivors.”

“I’m very excited about how this affiliation uses a model that delivers on the ‘best care is local’ concept,” said David Zaas, M.D., MUSC Health-Charleston Division CEO. “Health care is transforming, and by working together even more, we are enabling high-quality, well-coordinated and compassionate care for those we all serve. As a higher education institution, we are simultaneously demonstrating to future health care providers and researchers the power of these collaborations.” 

MUSC Hollings Cancer Center is South Carolina’s only National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, with the largest academic-based cancer research program in the state. The cancer center is comprised of more than 120 faculty cancer scientists and 20 academic departments dedicated to preventing and reducing the cancer burden across South Carolina. Hollings offers state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities, therapies and surgical techniques within multidisciplinary clinics that include surgeons, medical oncologists, radiation therapists, radiologists, pathologists, psychologists and other specialists equipped for the full range of cancer care, including more than 200 clinical trials across South Carolina.

MUSC Contact: Heather Woolwine / 843-792-7669 /woolwinh@musc.edu

TidelandsContact: Dawn Bryant / 843-652-1636 /dbryant@tidelandshealth.org

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About MUSC 

Founded in 1824 in Charleston, MUSC is the state’s only comprehensive academic health system, with a unique mission to preserve and optimize human life in South Carolina through education, research, and patient care. Each year, MUSC educates more than 3,000 students in six colleges – Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Professions, Medicine, Nursing, and Pharmacy – and trains more than 850 residents and fellows in its health system. MUSC brought in more than $297.8 million in research funds in the fiscal year 2022, leading the state overall in research funding. For information on academic programs, visit musc.edu.

As the health care system of the Medical University of South Carolina, MUSC Health is dedicated to delivering the highest-quality and safest patient care while educating and training generations of outstanding health care providers and leaders to serve the people of South Carolina and beyond. Patient care is provided at 14 hospitals with approximately 2,500 beds and five additional hospital locations in development; more than 350 telehealth sites, with connectivity to patients’ homes; and nearly 750 care locations situated in all regions of South Carolina. In 2022, for the eighth consecutive year, U.S. News & World Report named MUSC Health the No. 1 hospital in South Carolina. To learn more about clinical patient services, visit muschealth.org.

MUSC and its affiliates have collective annual budgets totaling $5.1 billion. The nearly 25,000 MUSC team members include a world-class faculty, physicians, specialty providers, scientists, students, affiliates and care team members who deliver and support groundbreaking education, research and patient care. 

About Tidelands Health

Tidelands Health is the region’s largest health care provider and MUSC Health affiliate, serving the Carolinas at four hospitals and more than 60 outpatient locations. More than 2,500 employee, physician and volunteer partners work side by side with our communities to transform the health of our region – promoting wellness, preventing illness, encouraging recovery and restoring health.