Will Vice President Joe Biden's Cancer Moonshot initiative be able to sustain it's momentum in 2017 following the transition in government?
The Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, has remained an important achievement of President Barack Obama’s 8-year term leading the nation. For Vice President Joe Biden, the Cancer Moonshot initiative, announced by the president during the 2016 State of the Union address, has been a very significant undertaking. However, the future of both the ACA and Cancer Moonshot are uncertain following the results of the presidential election this week.
The year 2016 saw a number of programs being launched and panels being announced in support of Cancer Moonshot. The administration initially asked the Congress for $755 million for cancer-related research for the year 2017, as well as $195 million in new funding for the National Institutes of Health for 2016, to support research to prevent, screen, and treat cancer, as well as to promote data sharing among various institutions.
A Blue Ribbon Panel of experts—authorities in biology, immunology, genomics, diagnostics, bioinformatics, and cancer prevention and treatment—was appointed to assist the National Cancer Advisory Board to identify and implement the scientific goals of Cancer Moonshot. The panel recently released a report that includes significant opportunities for improvement in the following areas:
A month later, Biden presented the president and the nation with an actionable plan with proposals to transform cancer research and care delivery in the United States. Importantly, the report identified barriers to data sharing that keep research findings and patient medical records within hard-to-penetrate silos.
But all of these transformative changes require funding, which may not be available following the transition in the White House early next year. Greg Simon, executive director of Cancer Moonshot, is, however, quite upbeat. According to Bloomberg BNA, Simon voiced his faith in the bipartisan support that the initiative has received, although he acknowledged that he had not been contacted by the Trump campaign.
Elizabeth Jaffee, MD, deputy director of the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, and co-chair of the Blue Ribbon Panel, agrees with Simon. She told Cancer Letter in an interview that cancer and biomedical research have always received support from both sides of the aisle.
Navigating Health Literacy, Social Determinants, and Discrimination in National Health Plans
February 13th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the February 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on how health plans can screen for health literacy, social determinants of health, and perceived health care discrimination.
Listen
Drs Raymond Thertulien, Joseph Mikhael on Racial Disparities in Multiple Myeloma Care Access
December 28th 2023In the wake of the 2023 American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, Raymond Thertulien, MD, PhD, of Novant Health, and Joseph Mikhael, MD, MEd, FRCPC, FACP, chief medical officer of the International Myeloma Foundation, discussed health equity research highlights from the meeting and drivers of racial disparities in multiple myeloma outcomes.
Listen
Poor Well-Being Scores Linked to Early Treatment Stoppage in Multiple Myeloma
March 27th 2024Investigators used the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General General Physical Wellbeing Scale to collect data on patient-reported treatment-related adverse effects, to provide clinicians guidance on predicting risk of early treatment discontinuation among ECOG-ACRIN E1A11 trial participants.
Read More