UPHS-Marquette announces new Medical Director for Cancer Center

MARQUETTE — UP Health System Marquette recently announced the hiring of the new Medical Director for its Cancer Center.

After completing his training at Yale University and the University of Virginia, Dr. Philip A. Lowry has spent about half of his time working in university centers and the other half in community centers. His main specialties include Hematology, Internal Medicine and Medical Oncology. As the new medical director for the cancer center at UP Health System Marquette, Dr. Lowry is impressed with what the hospital currently has to offer, and is looking forward to the potential it holds in the future.

“The Neuro–oncology program here is quite far along, much farther along than you would expect for a hospital this size,” said UP Health System Marquette Cancer Center Medical Director Dr. Philip Lowry, “several other parts of the cancer program are really doing quite well. This program has been certified by the Commission on Cancer, it also has certification from the American Society of Clinical Oncology through something called the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative, meaning that they’re really showing that they’re right up there with the best practices in the country in terms of how well they’re doing.”

Dr. Lowry says that he is confident with the changes and improvements that will be made once UP Health System Marquette moves to its new facility in 2017. One of the most exciting changes for patients includes the radiation oncology and the medical oncology areas, which will be united so all forms of cancer treatment will be done in the same location. Other improvements will be made even before they reach the new location, including having a pharmacist on–site twenty four hours a day.

“Much of what we do in cancer care now has to do with very complex medications and having an expert in those medications right there all the time,” Lowry added, “both to help us as practitioners but also to help our patients understand what they’re going through will be critical. The new space in the new hospital will have a wonderful area for her to be working there.”

With new developments in cancer treatment constantly evolving, there are an equal number of new medications and procedures as well. Dr. Lowry is one of the many involved in the hospital’s move who are doing their best to anticipate what they will need in the new facility to be able to perform all services that are needed.

“Our goal is that almost every kind of sophisticated cancer care there is people shouldn’t have to leave this area to get it. They should be able to get the same thing here that they can get just about anywhere else in the world.”