GREENVILLE — Prisma Health has created a new position to oversee its 11 cancer clinic sites across South Carolina as the health care provider continues to regionalize its organization between its two hubs in the Upstate and Midlands.
The state’s largest health care provider named Julian Kim president of the Prisma Health Cancer Institute on March 30. In the new role, Kim will oversee the health care system’s cancer program, which treats approximately 8,000 cancer patients annually and has more than 300 active clinical trials.
Kim, a board-certified surgical oncologist, has worked for Prisma since 2018 as the senior medical director of Oncology Services in the Midlands and, most recently, as chair of the department of surgery at Prisma Health Richland Hospital.
“It is an honor to step into this new role to help build upon the remarkable work of our Cancer Institute team of researchers and clinicians whose dedication to our patients and cancer medicine have led our expansive program to become the largest in the state,” Kim said in a prepared statement. “Our priorities are driven by an intense focus on patient-centered care, access to the most advanced treatment options, minimally invasive surgery, and innovation which encompasses clinical trials and research.”
Kim is well-positioned to lead the growth and strategy of the cancer institute as a physician, scientist and clinical leader, said Jonathan Gleason, Prisma’s executive vice president and chief clinical officer.
His appointment comes as the institute’s medical director, Dr. Larry Gluck, prepares to retire after nearly 40 years of oncology practice. Prisma launched a $3 million campaign for an endowed chair — the W. Larry Gluck, M.D. Endowed Chair of Translational and Molecular Oncology Research — in Gluck’s honor.
The cancer institute is in the midst of an expansion of its research and clinical programs following a 2019 grant for $8.2 million from National Institutes of Health for research and program expansion in the Midlands to increase access to clinical trials and treatments.
“The future of medicine is to bring care closer to patients,” Kim said. “Our goal is to help patients have access to even more advanced treatments while staying closer to home.”
