Cancer Center at BIDMC Launches Online Community

BIDMC Cancer Community offers support and information for people with cancer, loved ones

BOSTON — The Cancer Center at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) today announced the launch of a new online community that will offer support and information for people with cancer, their friends, families and caregivers.

BIDMC Cancer Community, part of the national CancerConnect network, is an open platform that offers discussion groups for users to support each other and share their experiences living with cancer. The discussions are moderated by seven experienced BIDMC Cancer Center staff, including oncology social workers and oncology dieticians.

“While clinicians and scientists here at BIDMC work together to promote excellence in cancer care, we also want to foster a vibrant community that allows everyone touched by cancer to encourage and learn from each other,” said Manuel Hidalgo, MD, PhD, Director of the Leon V. and Marilyn L. Rosenberg Clinical Cancer Center and Chief of the Division of Hematology-Oncology at BIDMC. “Our new BIDMC Cancer Community will help us do just that.”

“This online community is an example of the BIDMC Cancer Center’s commitment to bringing innovative thinking to every facet of cancer research, cancer care and medical education,” said Pier Paolo Pandolfi, MD, PhD, Cancer Center Director.

“Living with cancer is a collaborative, communal effort,” said BIDMC’s manager of oncology social work Hester Hill Schnipper, LICSW, BCD, OSW-C. Hill Schnipper is also a breast cancer survivor and a discussion moderator on the new BIDMC Cancer Community. “Our vision is for this online community to grow into a center of activity for support groups, ‘ask-the-expert’ sessions, educational videos and other services that will help patients and their families living with cancer.”

To learn more and to join the conversation, visit cancercommunity.bidmc.org.

The BIDMC Cancer Center consists of multiple disciplines including medical oncology, surgical oncology, radiation oncology, radiology and pathology. Twenty-one specialty patient-care programs focus on pancreatic cancer, bone-marrow transplantation, breast cancer, prostate cancer and biologic therapy, among others. The Cancer Center, with 184 faculty and more than $70 million in annual research support, provides patients with access to promising new therapies through hundreds of clinical trials.