[sam537]

I am close to some of these institutions and it pains me to hear the trouble you had just getting an answer a yes or no answer or getting your paperwork checked for eligibility. In large institutions there is not only an institutional culture but a Department-specific culture (as crazy as that sounds!). I am lucky to be part of a Department that has a immediate attention and transfer attitude from leadership and it permeates down to the faculty and next-day appointment slots are kept open and things accommodated.

I wish you the best, and it makes me want to work even harder to hear about the challenges we still face.

[jseliger]

Yeah, some of them have been great: "Two are obvious: Memorial-Sloan Kettering (MSK) in New York City and Dana Farber in Boston, and our experiences with both have been fantastic (not because there is less bureaucracy, but because the doctors we dealt with there were not completely beholden to it)." If you have what I have, those are both good. UCSD Health is enormous, but I was also able to get an initial telemedicine consult there, which was fantastic, I think in part because the head and neck oncologists understand the obvious regarding how hard it is to travel. Now, to get that telemedicine appointment, I did have to drive over the California border, and do it from California, but they were willing to make the appointment happen and I solemnly promised that I was in face in California.