06/12/2026
“...I think there's something innately hopeful about oncologists. We just kind of look at the world as if the glass is half-full.”
Dr. Dave Ryan, inaugural president of General Brigham Cancer Institute recently shared his vision of the future of oncology care with the Boston Business Journal.
“The institute more mirrors the patient journey than a department,” Ryan said. “That is an enormous shift in the way both patients will interact with Mass General Brigham."
These shifts will continue as clinical relationships and affiliates change over the next several years, new cancer facilities are created and built out, and new scientific discoveries are made. Increasingly, patients need and receive more individualized care, but despite the changes to the field that will continue, the basic relationship between doctor and patient will remain, Ryan said.
“What hasn't changed is that fundamental promise to every patient,” he said. “When you're sitting across from somebody, whether it was 25 years ago or today, the promise was always to give that patient the best chance of the best-case scenario.”
