The Dartmouth Health Board of Trustees and the Dartmouth College Board of Trustees have formally elevated Radiation Oncology from a section within the Department of Medicine at Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) and Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine, to full department status. The new department, which will be known as the Department of Radiation Oncology and Applied Sciences, will be under the leadership of inaugural chair Charles R. Thomas, Jr., MD.
Thomas has served as the section chief of Radiation Oncology since September 2021, when he joined Dartmouth Health from Oregon Health & Science University, where he was chair of the Department of Radiation Medicine. He has provided strategic vision and leadership for the growth and expansion of clinical services, as well as the section’s education and research activities, successfully stewarding it to full department status.
This change brings DHMC into alignment with other academic medical centers with National Cancer Institute-designated cancer centers. It will raise the visibility of DHMC’s programs, drive technical innovation, attract research dollars and improve, treatment outcomes for cancer patients and their families.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.