Care coordination is crucial for mitigating challenges associated with aging and survivorship, explained Rose Gerber, director of patient advocacy and education for the Community Oncology Alliance.
Care coordination is crucial for mitigating challenges associated with aging and survivorship, explained Rose Gerber, director of patient advocacy and education for the Community Oncology Alliance.
Transcript
How is an aging population adding to the challenges of survivorship?
Using myself as an example, I am very happy to be a 15-year survivor, and that is the greatest benefit of all of participating in the Herceptin clinical trial. I knew all the risks that came with being on that trial, but there were also side effects. Now that I’m also aging, which is a good thing, I’m happy to be aging, there’s other issues that happen to you when you get older. Now, when you’re a cancer survivor, on top of aging, these are challenges for not only the oncologist but for the primary care physicians, as well.
What are some potential efforts that could help mitigate some of these challenges?
I think the care coordination among different physicians. Even though I’m a 15-year survivor, I know one of my personal challenges that impacts other survivors, as well, is knowing that if your knee bothers you, that’s clearly not an oncology issue, but is it? Do you have bone cancer? I think the care coordination between the physicians is really critical because most cancer survivors see a variety of physicians.
I’ve given the example when I’ve done presentations across the country that I’ve had over 15 different specialists taking care of me since the time I was diagnosed, from my cardiologist to endocrinologist to oncologist to surgeons. I think having the care coordination can put the survivor’s mind at ease because you know your doctors are communicating with each other and you’re not getting conflicting guidelines on what you should do about your particular issue. With aging your question is always, “Is this an aging issue?” Is it memory lapse because you’re aging, or is it chemo brain? Will we have chemo brain 15 years later? Some people will say yes, so it’s an interesting concept.
Award-Winning Poster Presentations From AMCP 2024
April 23rd 2024At the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) 2024 annual meeting, multiple poster presentations concerned with health equity, data collection, glucagon-like peptide-1 agonists, and more were acknowledged for their originality, relevance, clarity, bias, and quality.
Read More
The Importance of Examining and Preventing Atrial Fibrillation
August 29th 2023At this year’s American Society for Preventive Cardiology Congress on CVD Prevention, Emelia J. Benjamin, MD, ScM, delivered the Honorary Fellow Award Lecture, “The Imperative to Focus on the Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation,” as the recipient of this year’s Honorary Fellow of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology award.
Listen
Standard Criteria for Loss of Ambulation Needed in DMD
April 19th 2024A recent study suggests the differences between ambulation definitions for patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) can impact the identification of ambulant vs nonambulant individuals, and standard criteria across settings are needed.
Read More
Promoting Equity in Public Health: Policy, Investment, and Community Engagement Solutions
June 28th 2022On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we speak with Georges C. Benjamin, MD, executive director of the American Public Health Association, on the core takeaways of his keynote session at AHIP 2022 on public health policy and other solutions to promote equitable health and well-being.
Listen
An Overview of Health Care and Pharmaceutical Trends, 2023-2024
April 19th 2024Douglas M. Long, BA, MBA, was featured as the keynote speaker on the closing day of The Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy 2024 annual meeting, with a session dedicated to surveying the health care and pharmaceutical trends of the last year.
Read More