ACCC: Association of Cancer Care Centers

Integrated care teams will create more value for the patient, but there are multiple challenges in the creation of these teams, said Mark Soberman, MD, MBA, FACS, former president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers.

Pulling data out of an electronic health record (EHR) to be analyzed can be difficult because that’s not what these systems were typically created to do, said Pamela Tobias, MS, RHIA, CHDA, administrator of oncology services at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Creating integrated cancer care teams is part of a paradigm shift that requires thinking of care delivery in a different way, explained Thomas Asfeldt, MBA, RN, director of Outpatient Cancer Services at Sanford Cancer Center.

Financial toxicity has been on the rise, but there has been movement toward reducing the burden through better communication and shared decision making, said Yousuf Zafar, MD, MHS, of the Duke Cancer Institute and a member of the Association of Community Cancer Centers Financial Advocacy Network Advisory Committee.

There are ways to identify if a colleague is becoming burned out, but also ways people can identify burnout in themselves, explained Kathleen Blake, MD, MPH, vice president for Performance Improvement at the American Medical Association (AMA).

Community practices are crucial for helping to increase diversity in clinical trials, said James Hamrick, MD, MPH, Kaiser Permanente and Flatiron Health.

The old ways that physicians used to coordinate care no longer work and the idea of just hiring 1 person to do it hasn’t been sufficient, said Barbara Tofani, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, administrative director of the Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center.

Practices increasingly need to use technology to deliver care in an increasingly value-based world, said Charles Saunders, MD, CEO of Integra Connect.

Communication is critical in providing integrated, comprehensive care, said Mark Soberman, MD, MBA, FACS, former president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC).

Mark Soberman, MD, MBA, FACS, explains why he chose to focus on creating the next generation multidisciplinary team in cancer care during his 1-year tenure as president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC).

Recent changes in the healthcare industry can both contribute to and exacerbate clinician burnout, but can also improve the situation, said Kathleen Blake, MD, MPH, vice president for Performance Improvement at the American Medical Association.

Tom Gallo, president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers, discusses how burnout is on the rise, but being better addressed now, as well as how technology can both contribute to and alleviate burnout.

All members of the care team can get burned out, not just the physicians, explained Tom Gallo, president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers.

At the Association of Community Cancer Centers’ (ACCC) 44th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit, March 14-16, 2018, in Washington, DC, panelists discussed the most powerful forces that are reshaping cancer care to be more multidisciplinary.

Finding inefficiencies in operational processes to identify gaps, improve symptom management and adherence, and optimizing value-based care—these are a few of the advantages of implementing technology in the daily operations of a community-based practice. This was the takeaway message from a series of presentations at the Association of Community Cancer Centers' 44th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit, March 14-16, 2018, in Washington DC.

Care has become very complex and it isn’t enough to just give patients information and hope they can process it on their own, said Barbara Tofani, RN, MSN, NEA-BC, administrative director of the Hunterdon Regional Cancer Center.

At the Association of Community Cancer Centers' 44th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit, held March 14-16, 2018, in Washington, DC, panelists shared strategies that have helped their organizations adapt to value-based care while ensuring that they never lose sight of the patient at the center of it all.

The US health system has done a poor job of integrating new technologies into practice, while other countries do better, said Roger Holzberg, BFA, co-founder and creative director of Reimagine Well.

The increasing level of frustration that Tom Gallo saw in cancer care prompted him to choose burnout as the theme for his year as president of the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC).

What are the biggest drivers of change in oncology care and what needs most attention? This was the crux of the discussion during an early panel at the Association of Community Cancer Centers' 44th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit, held March 14-16, 2018, in Washington, DC.

The increasing complexity and personalization of clinical trials are major challenges for managing clinical trials, said James Hamrick, MD, MPH, Kaiser Permanente and Flatiron Health.

At the Association of Community Cancer Center’s 44th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit, March 14-16, 2018, in Washington, DC, payer and physician representatives shared the stage with the president of a cancer foundation that is striving to break the barriers that prevent easy healthcare information exchange and access to cancer care.