Oregon Health & Science University has added two neuro-oncologists, highly specialized physicians trained to treat brain and spine cancer, as the university battles other health systems to attract patients.
Sushant Puri and Huan Vo began work this month in OHSU’s neuro-oncology program, which treats people with tumors that affect the central nervous system.
Neuro-oncology is a highly specialized field that requires training in neurology as well as chemotherapy, surgery, radiation and other cancer treatments. There are fewer than 350 board-certified neuro-oncologists in the entire country, according to an OHSU press release, and the health system has gone without one since 2022.
Two years ago the system’s chief competitor in cancer care, Providence Health, hired Prakash Ambady away from OHSU. Cancer care can be lucrative for hospitals and health systems. A 2022 study in the The Journal of the American Medical Association found that hospitals mark up the price of cancer medications as much 630%. Between 2015 and 2019, spending on all cancer therapies rose from $39.1 billion to $67.5 billion, according to the study.
In June, to deal with financial difficulties, OHSU announced that it would lay off hundreds of employees and was also pursuing a “strategic alignment” to focus its care in more profitable areas, such as specialty surgeries.
New hires will improve and coordinate care
OHSU’s neuro-oncology program handles about 350 surgical cases per year, according to Erik Robinson, a university spokesperson. It works closely with its departments of neurology and neurological surgery, as well as the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute, which treats about 6,000 patients every year.
The neuro-oncologists will be tasked with helping coordinate treatments for cancer patients while strengthening care.
Before coming to OHSU, Puri spent two years as a research fellow in the neuro-oncology branch of the National Institutes of Health, following a year-long clinical fellowship in neuro-oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital.
Vo obtained his medical degree from Drexel University in Philadelphia and completed four years of internal medicine and neurology residencies at OHSU, as well as a neuro-oncology fellowship at UC San Francisco this past year.
“I’m excited by the possibilities of growing this important program,” Puri said in the OHSU announcement. “The vision for me and Dr. Vo is when patients in Oregon and the Pacific Northwest hear OHSU neuro-oncology, they know it’s a center of excellence where they will get the best possible care.”
