What Dr Howard Burris Will Focus on as ASCO President
April 28th 2019As Howard A. "Skip" Burris, III, MD, FACP, FASCO, president, clinical operations, and chief medical officer of Sarah Cannon Research Institute, prepares to become the president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in June, he discusses what his focus will be.
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Dr C.K. Wang: How COTA's Real-World Data Platform Helps Oncologists Make Informed Decisions
April 27th 2019In addition to helping make treatment decisions, COTA's real-world data platform can help oncologists understand and identify areas where there is treatment variability and help them work to contain cost in the long run, explained C.K. Wang, MD, senior medical director, COTA.
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Katie Goodman Discusses Clinical Trial Participation Criteria's Impact on Trial Participation
April 25th 2019Clinical trial criteria is really about patient safety and making sure participating patients don't experience undue risks, explained Katie Goodman, RN, BSN, CCRP, director of clinical research, Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute.
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Dr Jeff Patton Explains How Physician Shortage, Burnout Are Impacting Community Oncologists
April 22nd 2019While the physician shortage is having an impact in rural areas, the impact of physician burnout is happening across the board, said Jeff Patton, MD, chief executive officer of Tennessee Oncology.
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Dr Basit Chaudhry on Challenges With Improving Performance Under OCM
April 17th 2019Part of the challenge has been the distribution of cost structure under the Oncology Care Model (OCM), particularly with respect to pharmaceuticals, explained Basit Chaudhry, MD, PhD, founder of Tuple Health.
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Dr Lee Schwartzberg Reflects on the Approval of the First Immunotherapy Regimen in Breast Cancer
April 12th 2019The breast cancer community is very excited about the approval of atezolimuab for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer, explained Lee Schwartzberg, MD, FACP, executive director, West Cancer Center.
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Katie Goodman on FDA's Efforts to Expand Patient Inclusion Criteria for Clinical Trials
April 11th 2019The guidances released by the FDA to expand inclusion criteria for cancer clinical trials is a step in the right direction, said Katie Goodman, RN, BSN, CCRP, director of clinical research, Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute.
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Step Therapy in Medicare Advantage Hurts Patients, Providers, Says Schwartzberg
April 6th 2019Step therapy, which requires that patients try the payer’s preferred treatment before the one a physician recommends, is harmful to both sides of the doctor-patient relationship, according to Lee B. Schwartzberg, MD, medical director of the West Cancer and Research Institute, who spoke at the 2019 Community Oncology Conference, held in Orlando, Florida.
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Pharma Discusses How to Reframe Value in Era of Precision Medicine, Combinations
April 6th 2019Healthcare experts may agree the shift from volume to value is well under way, but the definition of value has many answers, according to pharmaceutical company representatives discussing the issue at the 2019 Community Oncology Conference in Orlando, Florida.
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Dr Howard Burris on Efforts Needed to Ensure Access to NGS Testing
April 5th 2019Howard A. "Skip" Burris, III, MD, FACP, FASCO, president, clinical operations, and chief medical officer of Sarah Cannon Research Institute, discusses what's needed from a policy perspective to ensure access to next-generation sequencing (NGS) tests.
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Katie Goodman: Bring Clinical Trials to the Community Setting to Meet Patients Where They Are
April 5th 2019Patients won't participate in a clinical trial if it's too much of a burden, so we have to bring the trials to where the patients live, explained Katie Goodman, RN, BSN, CCRP, director of clinical research, Florida Cancer Specialists & Research Institute.
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Strategies for Fighting Consolidation in Community Oncology
April 5th 2019At the Community Oncology Alliance's 2019 Community Oncology Conference in Orlando, Florida, a panel discussed strategies for practices to collaborate and survive the recent wave of consolidation. Targeting employers is one solution.
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Learnings From Priority Health's Oncology Payment Reform Model
November 1st 2018To speak about the success and continued development of Priority Health's payment reform model in cancer care, John Fox, MD, medical director at Priority Health, joined Dennis Zoet, chief business development officer at Cancer and Hematology Centers of Western Michigan, on a panel at the Community Oncology Alliance Payer Exchange Summit.
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Ted Okon on Policy Priorities for COA in 2019
November 1st 2018I’ve seen one case recently where a patient received $172,000 of drugs that were totally wasted. So, we’re going to be looking at this, we’re going to be looking at these middlemen getting in the way of the patient and the physician making a decision about their therapy, explained Ted Okon, executive director of COA.
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Dr Lalan Wilfong Provides an Overview of Key Learnings From the OCM
November 1st 2018Looking at total cost of care is difficult and figuring out what the practice is responsible for and not responsible for can be very difficult to do, said Lalan Wilfong, MD, executive vice president of Quality Programs at Texas Oncology.
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Bo Gamble Explains How COA Defines Value in Oncology
October 31st 2018A patient has their own set of values, providers have their own set of values, and the people that pay for it have their own set of values. So, [we all need to] come together, explains Bo Gamble, Director Of Strategic Practice Initiatives at the Community Oncology Alliance.
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Experts Discuss Regulatory, Cultural Roadblocks to Progress With Value-Based Agreements
October 31st 2018At the Community Oncology Alliance Payer Exchange Summit, healthcare policy experts from a government relations firm and from the pharmaceutical industry provided an update on the progress with value-based agreements and also discussed the challenges posed by the existing infrastructure and operational framework.
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Lyn Fitzgerald on the Adoption of Risk-Based Models
October 31st 2018I’m not quite certain that the system is equipped to provide a comfort level for clinicians that they’re ready to take on two-sided risk, explained Lyn Fitzgerald, senior vice president, US & Global Development at the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN).
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