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2015 | Doing Business in Connecticut 55 prevent the growth of the tumor. Clinically proven treatment methods will still be used. Personalized medicine just gives new treatment options to patients who are not responding to traditional treatments because their genetic code differs from the norm. "Ours is for patients who don't have a standard of care — those who have rare tumors, tumors of unknown origin, or who don't know which organ was the originating organ" for the cancer, Adams said. "ese patients have already tried first- or second-line treatments — the patient is relapsing, and nothing in the standard of care is thought to be worth continuing." While it's early days, she said, doctors are curious, interested and receptive to discover- ies that will help them improve patient care. "e new tool of our era is genetics," said Balcezak. "Now we're understanding one more link in the chain of why these diseases develop." Financial Boost In January, the Obama Administration announced the Precision Medicine Initiative, earmarking $215 million in the president's 2016 budget to pioneer research to accelerate biomedical discoveries. Specifically, he budgeted $130 million to the National Institute of Health (NIH) for the development of a voluntary national research cohort of at least 1 million volunteers to have their genomes sequenced and their medical histories followed. is would allow researchers to correlate genetic markers to human health, Weinstock said. "e more people you have, the better your chance of seeing the same event over and over again," he said. "is is like the Framingham [Heart] Study on steroids," he added, referring to the long-term study involving more than 5,000 adults from Framingham, Mass. Obama also budgeted $10 million for the Food & Drug Administration to reevalu- ate its rules to see whether there is room for modification to accelerate FDA approvals for precision medicine. Finally, the president budgeted $70 mil- lion to the National Cancer Institute, part of the NIH, to increase its efforts to identify genomic drivers in cancer and apply that knowledge to more effective personalized cancer treatment. ❑ By Theresa Sullivan Barger A s a child growing up in Meriden, Marna Parke Borgstrom and her siblings accom- panied their dad, an ophthalmologist, on house calls aer church. He had learned to speak a little bit of Yiddish, Polish and Italian, and clearly loved helping his patients. She had hoped to become a doctor, but her dislike of upper-level physics stymied that plan. Aer graduating from Stanford University with a biology degree, she worked at Macy's before taking a business associate job in the patient care unit of a teaching hospital and "fell in love with the environment." Borgstrom decided to get her master's degree in public health at Yale University, promising her brand-new husband that they'd stay in Connecticut for two years and then move back to California. Even before completing her graduate degree in 1979, she began working in public health — for the Meriden Health Department, Planned Parenthood, and in an administrative fellowship at Yale-New Haven Hospital. She has been employed at Yale-New Haven Hospital ever since, working her way up to executive vice president and CEO in 1994 and becoming president and CEO of both Yale-New Haven Hospital and Yale New Haven Health System in 2005. A mother of two adult sons, she didn't plan to lead one of the nation's top hos- pitals and admits to feeling like an imposter at times. "I grew up in a pretty humble family with a mother who taught her kids that we were not better than somebody else," she says. "I had some pretty interesting, committed, wonderful mentors. ey opened up lots of opportunities here. Every time I thought of leaving and going somewhere else, I was offered a new challenge." Her husband has retired from the business he co-owned that designed home electronic systems, but much of her family is in the health care field. Her brother is a physician, and her sister is in senior leadership with a national health care benefits company. One son works with a community-based health care organization while the other works for a company that trades biofuels. She led the building of the Yale-New Haven Children's Hospital and was involved in the planning behind Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven. "ose are won- derful opportunities to have," she says. "Every day is pretty engaging and impressive." Borgstrom serves on several national boards, including the Council of Teach- ing Hospitals and Healthcare Executives Study Society, as well as state and local boards, such as the Connecticut Hospital Association's Board of Trustees and Greater New Haven Regional Leadership Council. And she makes a point of staying connected to patients by reading every letter sent to her and tagging along on patient care rounds at Greenwich and Bridgeport hospitals. She takes care of her own health, making time to read, exercise regularly, and, when her schedule permits, cook. "My dog gives me a reason to get outside and exercise." ❑ Marna P. Borgstrom, president and CEO, YNHHS Committed to Care Head of Yale New Haven Health System and YNHH grew up with a healthy outlook PHOTO/YALE-NEW HAVEN HOSPITAL PROFILE