The patient-centric mindset guiding clinical trials at OSF Cancer Institute

In September, Peoria, Ill.-based OSF HealthCare appointed Jun Zhang, MD, PhD, as vice president of oncology research for the OSF Cancer Institute. In the role, Dr. Zhang oversees the health system’s clinical trial program — the OSF Breakthrough Treatment Center.

He previously served as director of medical oncology clinical research services at Kansas City-based University of Kansas Medical Center, according to a Sept. 8 news release from OSF HealthCare. 

Dr. Zhang recently joined the Becker’s Healthcare Podcast to share his priorities and goals for his new role, and how healthcare leaders can better support cancer research at their organizations. 

Here is an excerpt from the conversation:

Editor’s note: This response was lightly edited for clarity and length. 

Question: What mindset should health system leaders take when it comes to supporting cancer research or even beginning to operationalize or expand cancer research programs within their own organizations? 

Dr. Jun Zhang: There are a few principles we have to pay attention to. One is we’ve got to have a mission, and that mission must be patient-centered.

Let’s say our loved one is diagnosed with cancer. The moment of cancer diagnosis is devastating. Every day matters and every hour matters. From that perspective, we want to introduce really effective treatment for our patients.

This can be through very good, standard care treatment, but also innovative clinical trials. We want to translate those discoveries into innovative treatments for our patients to benefit them as soon as possible, and this is what we call the “translational imperative.” 

We want to move discoveries to the clinical side as quickly as possible. With this patient-centric mindset and mission, we know the direction of doing research. 

At OSF, we are not just called employees, we are called “mission partners.” This is one of the reasons that I came to OSF — its mission to try to prevent or reduce any unnecessary suffering and to save every single patient. 

Listen to the full conversation here.