About Us

In 1985, Dr. Dennis Slater moved from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer in New York, to Norwich, Connecticut, in response to recruitment from The William W. Backus Hospital for a medical oncologist. He began a private practice with the goal of developing a program that would allow patients to receive state of the art cancer care within their own community. Two years later, Dr. Kandhasamy Jagathambal, from Long Island Jewish Hospital in New York, joined Dr. Slater and, together, they established the Norwich Cancer Center. Soon, Dr. Mandeep Dhami, from the University of Connecticut, came on board, adding his expertise in thrombosis, hemostasis, and hematology, and ECHO Associates (Eastern Connecticut Hematology/Oncology) was born. As numbers of patients and services increased, Dr. Dinesh Kapur, from St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, joined ECHO and also serves as Medical Director for Cancer Services at Backus Hospital. The most recent addition to our medical staff is Dr. Anca Bulgaru, who completed a fellowship at Montefiore Hospital in New York.

Presently, five board certified physicians, a board certified nurse practitioner, seven registered nurses, and a support staff of over 40 employees all make up a team to provide our patients with a wide range of medical and support services.

Research plays an important role in our practice. We participate in many pharmaceutical trials including ECOG, NSABP, NCI and Pharmaceutical sponsored studies. ECHO is one of fifteen practices in the country to participate in the AIM Higher Project, a patient assessment research study. You and your doctor can decide if a clinical trial would be right for you.

We are proud of our relationship with The ECHO Cancer Foundation, a private not-for-profit organization whose mission is dedicated to providing hope, support, guidance, education and complimentary therapies to patients, family members and caregivers who have been touched by cancer or any serious blood disease.

With our expanded offices and services in the Medical Office Building of Backus Hospital, just upstairs from Radiation Therapy and close to the Cancer Inpatient Unit at Backus, we believe our goal of providing comprehensive, state of the art community cancer care has been met. We will always strive to remain responsive to our patients, their families, and our community.