Anderson’s Achilles’ heel

Manageability

On the surface, the two MD Anderson stories on Feb. 6 appear to have nothing besides MD Anderson in common. “Our health care system is sick” (Page A2) by Ken Janda relates his difficulties navigating the complexities of the cancer care system at Anderson with his father. The second, “Cancer center guards its logo, name” (Page A3) by Todd Ackerman discusses MD Anderson’s objection to the use of its name as a sponsor of a global cancer conference in India because the inaugural speaker has some very unconventional ideas about the cause of malignancy.

In truth, both stories derive from the same problem. MD Anderson is too big. Routing patients around the complex has become a major expedition for the patients and their families and this despite the supposed patient-centeredness of MD Anderson’s care and its multidisciplinary clinics purportedly built around the patient.

Clearly, no one was minding the store in the global area either, as someone inserted this unconventional speaker under the MD Anderson banner and no one in Houston was aware.

In its zeal to be all things to all cancer patients and to expand its reach throughout the world, MD Anderson seems to have outgrown its manageability.

The new leadership of Anderson must attend to these problems as among its first orders of business. Leonard Zwelling, Bellaire

(The writer is a retired faculty member and vice president at MD Anderson.)