Oncology

Alliances are going to help community oncology participate in things that, as individual practices, they don‘t have the opportunity to do, said Barry Russo, chief executive officer of The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

With CancerIQ, we’re really going to be helping push population health into the oncology arena where we can hopefully predict and preempt this very costly and devastating disease well in advance, says Feyi Olopade Ayodele, MBA, chief executive officer at CancerIQ.

The Oncology Care Model (OCM) has set off a ripple of change in cancer care that extends beyond the patients who are in the model, said David Ortiz, OCM program director at Montefiore Einstein Center for Cancer Care.

Patients with primary care appointments in the morning were more likely to have orders for and receive recommended breast and colorectal cancer screenings.

Outcomes for patients with cancer are continuously improving, but the increasingly complex healthcare system, new payment and delivery models that place more risk on practices, and rising costs of therapies has made it difficult for independent oncology practices to thrive and survive. However, independent practices present an important part of cancer care, delivering care to patients who are not near large hospital-based systems at lower costs.

Pharmacists, social support services, an information technology team, and financial counselors all come together to encompass the care for the patient, says Beth Wittmer, RN, OCN, manager of care management at Florida Cancer Specialists and Research Institute.

Triage pathways can transform practices and save practices and CMS money by keeping people out of the emergency department and hospital, said Ray Page, DO, PhD, president and director of research at The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

Some of the health policies coming out of Washington, DC, are clever, but there might be too much coming out for practices to keep up with, said Michael Kolodziej, MD, vice president and chief innovation officer at ADVI Health, Inc.

This study explores the causes of emotionally adverse patient experiences in cancer care and presents a taxonomy for analyzing free-text patient data.

Patients with cancer who receive high doses of bisphosphonates, used to treat bone cancer, can experience jaw damage. New preclinical research published in Bone Science Direct could prevent these patients from experiencing this loss of jawbone tissue after routine oral surgery.

Patients who adhere to a CancerIQ cancer prevention plan, or cancer survivorship plan, are more likely to catch a cancer before it grows beyond 1 centimeter, says Feyi Olopade Ayodele, MBA, chief executive officer at CancerIQ.

An artificial intelligence system can digest what would take a person 29 hours to read in about 30 seconds, so everything is right in front of providers at the point of care, says Barry Russo, chief executive officer of The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.

During a session at Asembia’s 15th annual Specialty Pharmacy Summit, Greg Simon, president, Biden Cancer Initiative, outlined commitments that came out of the Cancer Moonshot, the work of the Biden Cancer Initiative, and ongoing challenges that patients with cancer face.

The oncology drug pipeline has experienced rapid growth over the past decade, driven by innovation in cell therapies, immunotherapy, and precision medicine, according to a specialty pipeline update presentation at Asembia's 15th annual Specialty Pharmacy Summit, held April 29 to May 2 in Las Vegas.

Every week, The American Journal of Managed Care® recaps the top managed care news of the week, and you can now listen to it on our podcast, Managed Care Cast.

This week, the top managed care news included a study demonstrating that diabetes drug canagliflozin cuts the risk of renal failure and death; the FDA approving the first targeted therapy for metastatic bladder cancer; approximately half of all cancer deaths are attributable to modifiable risk factors.

Using oncology care pathways and treatment pathways has helped practices use evidence-based data to facilitate them to be sure they are using the right drug for the right patient at the right time, said Ray Page, DO, PhD, president and director of research at The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders.