Shoreline Medical Center
Medical Director: Kenneth B. Roberts, MD
Since July 2004, the Department of Therapeutic Radiology of the Yale-New Haven Medical Center has been operating a clinic and treatment facility in Guilford, Connecticut. As an integral part of the Yale-New Haven Shoreline Medical Center (YNHSMC), various subspecialty services are located in a convenient setting for those patients who live on or near the Shoreline region. This facility along with our Radiation Oncology practice in Guilford is located just off Exit 59 of the Interstate 95 Highway. Medical services include not only external beam radiotherapy for our cancer patients, but also more generally include diagnostic imaging, laboratory testing, ambulatory surgery, endoscopy, emergency room, several private physician offices, and other support services such as nutrition counseling and preadmission testing. For the cancer patient who lives or works in the Shoreline area, this means that external beam radiotherapy may be administered more conveniently. The Department of Radiation Oncology at the YNHSMC is a full service practice, representing more than just an extension of our clinic in New Haven at the Yale-New Haven Medical Center.
Our hours of operation are from 8:00 am until 4:30 pm during the workweek. Our on-call schedule provides 24-hour coverage for urgent patient and physician concerns. The Guilford Radiation Oncology clinic is primarily staffed by three radiation oncologists, who simultaneously hold full time faculty appointments to the Yale University School of Medicine: Dr Kenneth B Roberts (Medical Director), Dr. Susan Higgins, and Dr. Jonathan Knisely. As a high quality practice, an Attending Physician is on the premises at all times. Our technical staff of nurses, radiation therapists, medical physicists, and dosimetrists are all highly experienced employees of Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Phone numbers:
- Appointments: 203-453-7170
(Physician making referrals may expect to talk directly with our physician staff) - Fax number: 203-453-7210
- After hour inquires: 203-453-7170 or 203-785-2957
(also Dr. Roberts’ New Haven office number during daytime 203-785-2957)
Services:
Patients needing radiation oncology services may expect to receive a complete continuum of their care in Guilford: consultations, treatment planning, treatment delivery and supportive care, coordination with other specialists including medical oncologists and surgeons, and medical follow-up. External Beam Radiotherapy is delivered with a state-of-the-art dual energy Varian Linear Accelerator, capable of providing conventional radiotherapy, electron beam radiotherapy, three dimensional conformal radiotherapy, and intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT). Treatment planning utilizes a GE CT-simulator providing mutli-slice or helical cross sectional imaging for precision localization of tumor and normal tissue structures.
Of one of the newest methods for precision radiotherapy, IMRT utilizes a unique computer based treatment planning and radiation delivery system. Conventional radiotherapy uses radiation beams of uniform intensity, exposing tumor and nearby normal tissues to the same radiation dose. With IMRT, multiple radiation beams are directed at a tumor target at different angles. The intensity of each beam is modulated by a multi-leaf collimator that produces individualized patterns of blocking across the beam under computer control. The summation of all the beams leads to a radiation dose pattern that more tightly conforms to the tumor while reducing radiation dose to adjacent normal tissues. Results of clinical trials in prostate cancer for instance demonstrate that the ability to increase the dose to tumor while reducing normal tissue exposure results in better cancer control and fewer side effects. IMRT appears to also be particularly advantageous in selected patients with Head and Neck cancer and some pediatric malignancies.
More specialized radiation oncology services such as brachytherapy (implanted radiation sources) or stereotactic radiosurgery (e.g. Gamma Knife) are readily available at Yale. Concurrent chemotherapy will be coordinated with the various medical oncology practices in the area. When patients require hospitalization at Yale-New Haven Hospital, their radiation treatments may be easily continued there and then smoothly transferred back to Guilford upon hospital discharge. Finally, we are able to offer clinical trials to our patients through the Yale University School of Medicine. Currently, we have approximately 25 open protocols, many of which are sponsored by cooperative groups such as the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG), the Eastern Cancer Oncology Group (ECOG), and the Childrens Oncology Group (COG).
Our Physicians:
While our Radiation Oncology practice has an academic affiliation and mission, our Department of Therapeutic Radiology at the Yale University School of Medicine has a long tradition of community based practices emphasizing excellence in patient care. For decades our Yale group practice has provided radiation oncology services not only in New Haven, but also in Eastern Connecticut, currently with clinics at Backus Hospital and L&M Hospital in Norwich and New London, respectively. Our model of physician staffing in which Attending Physicians spend time at our base at Yale as well as at our affiliated practices has historically served patients and referring physicians extremely well. By attention to appropriate communication with our physician colleagues, excellent patient continuity of care has been traditionally well maintained. This system also allows our radiation oncologists to maintain subspecialty expertise, which further serves our patients well. Dr. Roberts is in Guilford on Mondays and Fridays, Dr. Colasanto on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and Dr. Higgins on Wednesdays and some Mondays.
Kenneth B Roberts, MD is our Guilford clinic’s Medical Director. He has been on the Yale Faculty for 12 years, after training at the Duke University Medical Center. He is Board Certified in both Radiation Oncology and Medical Oncology (though only practices in the former specialty). His undergraduate education was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his medical school training was at Duke University. Since arriving at Yale, his clinical practice has emphasized the management of lymphomas and pediatric malignancies. He also has extensive experience with gastro-intestinal tumors, prostate cancer and other GU malignancies, gynecologic tumors, sarcomas, lung cancer and brain tumors. He also has an interest in brachytherapy, and in a non-oncologic application of radiotherapy has been directing our coronary brachytherapy program at Yale-New Haven Hospital.
Susan Higgins, MD trained in Radiation Oncology at Yale. She is Board Certified in Radiatiion Oncology. She was an undergraduate and medical student at the University of Rochester and joined our staff in 1996. Her principal expertise is in Gynecologic Malignancies and Breast Cancer. She also has extensive experience with brachytherapy and many of the common tumors that we treat in our general radiation oncology practices.
Joseph Colasanto, MD is a Connecticut native. He completed his radiation oncology residency at Yale. His training is in general radiation oncology practice and has skill in managing patients with head and neck, lung, prostate, breast cancer, and other malignancies. Dr. Colasanto attended the University of Connecticut for both his undergraduate studies and medical school.
Further inquires:
In summary, we expect our radiation oncology clinic in Guilford to serve patients and the community physician practices in the Shoreline region in a responsive, caring, and high quality manner. While our academic affiliation insures that our clinical skills remain at the cutting edge of advances in the field of oncology, we also remain attentive to excellence in delivering patient care. If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us. We are truly excited to be able to extend our clinical capabilities at our new Guilford facility and are now open to serve both patient and physicians in the area.
Kenneth B Roberts, MD
Medical Director, Radiation Oncology, Yale-New Haven Shoreline Medical Center
Associate Professor of Therapeutic Radiology, Yale University
kenneth.roberts@yale.edu
Phone: 203-453-7071 (Guilford) or 203-785-2957 (New Haven)
