Abbey Kaler’s earliest memories of MD Anderson aren’t exactly fond ones. It’s the place she returned to dozens of times for follow-up care after being diagnosed with a childhood brain tumor.

“No matter how long it’d been since my last appointment, I was scared out of my mind because I was going from normal-kid life back to sick-kid life for 48 hours,” Abbey says. But there was a bright spot during the visits: “The nurses were always...