Athena Breast Health Network
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: The 5 Cancer Centers of the UC system have a unique opportunity to collaborate around shared priorities and infrastructure goals through the ATHENA Breast Health Network. ATHENA, a large-scale demonstration project, will drive innovation in breast cancer prevention, screening, and treatment, ultimately serving as a model for effectively and efficiently changing the paradigm for health care delivery. Through ATHENA, the UC medical centers will: 1.Enroll 400,000 women into a screening cohort 2.Implement a comprehensive web-based informatics strategy to modernize the way in which we collect and track clinical information and integrate it with research and learning 3.Collaborate with NCI/BIG Health on developing an informatics strategy to integrate clinical care and research 4.Create an unparalleled biospecimen and data repository linked to a common clinical registry to fuel research and innovation in breast cancer care 5.Introduce a system for evidence based management ATHENA will enable the UC system to integrate molecular classification into diagnosis and treatment, and help to reduce overtreatment and focus on improving treatment options for women at highest risk for poor outcomes. It will help build infrastructure needed to effectively deliver personalized medicine and take advantage of the advances in science and technology. ATHENA will enable us to drive innovation across the UC system to deliver and finance more effective and efficient systems for personalized and biologically targeted care, using breast cancer as a prototype. By providing state of the art molecular diagnostics to patients participating in the ATHENA program, the UC program will maintain and enhance their position as leaders in cancer care. The biospecimen repository will foster partnerships with California biotechnology companies and serve to accelerate discovery and validation of biomarkers, and to disseminate new and emerging technology. The collaboration will leverage the combined power of the UC system at many levels, from research, to purchasing, to clinical care delivery. And finally, the program will serve as a rich resource for research and training at all levels, in biomedical science, clinical care, and public health. We have assembled an incredible team of investigators across the many campuses of the University of California, and generated incredible enthusiasm to work together on this incredibly exciting initiative. We all realize that together, we can accomplish extraordinary things and that the whole will be much greater than what each of us can accomplish alone. We believe that, through the ATHENA project, we will not only to improve our understanding of how to prevent breast cancer and rapidly improve treatment options for women, but that we will be able to make a major contribution in the area of health care delivery and be the an essential part of building dynamic learning systems that will hopefully become the hallmark of the University of California.