Dr Sashi Naidu: NOLA Initiative Is Helping Overcome Fragmented Oncology Care

At Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates, where Sashi Naidu, MD, is director of research, the No One Left Alone (NOLA) initiative, first implemented in January 2021, is working to break down cancer health disparities among its patients by addressing the social determinants of health that may be preventing their equitable access to care.

Transcript

Can you discuss the NOLA initiative from Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates?

NOLA was conceived by our need at our practice. There are a lot of foundations and opportunities for patient access, but it’s often a fragmented process. So the purpose of NOLA was to bring that process in house, where the patients can feel comfortable that the physicians who are their treating doctors are taking care of this aspect of their health care, which often can be a very big challenge—even sometimes more than the clinical aspects of their cancer care.

What is the status of patient assistance initiatives for oral cancer drugs within NOLA?

We picked up oral financial assistance initiatives just like the intravenous drugs. It’s a seamless process. As with many community oncology practices, there is an oral dispensary in house. It is a just a very easy transition to add oral financial assistance to our intravenous drug financial assistance. So there’s not been any major problems there.