Dr Joshua Ofman: Improving Survival, Reducing Costs in Oncology Vital to Value-Based Care Transition

From a value-based medicine perspective, we think there's no greater value in the healthcare system than improving survival for cancer patients and reducing the costs of treating late stage cancer; we believe the GRAIL test could be the test case for how to make this transition, said Joshua Ofman, MD, MSHS, chief of Corporate Strategy and External Affairs at GRAIL Inc.

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Where does GRAIL fit into various payment models that have been deployed, either by CMS or commercial payers?

Right now, this is a very transformational approach to early cancer detection. So, a lot of work needs to be done, and it's very early days; but we know the opportunity to improve public health is enormous. So, if you're a payer or a healthcare system or a large self-insured employer, the opportunity to improve the proportion of the population that gets screened, and then to use a single blood test to detect over 20 cancers is unprecedented. For most of the systems, payers, and employers, it's an enormous opportunity to diagnose cancer earlier in their population, where cancers are more treatable, and cancers are even curable. That is 1 of the biggest opportunities to improve the population’s health.

How has the transition toward value-based care influenced strategies being formulated by GRAIL to address patient needs or requests?

We know the healthcare system in the US has to transform itself. The US healthcare system has got to make a move from a break it and fix it healthcare system towards a system that focuses on prediction prevention and early detection. Unless it makes that transition, costs are going to continue to rise and this idea of a value-based healthcare system will not come to fruition. So, we believe the GRAIL test could be the test case for how to make this transition. From a value-based medicine perspective, we think there's no greater value in the healthcare system than improving survival for cancer patients and reducing the costs of treating late stage cancer. So, when you diagnose cancers early, the cost can be much less—half of what it costs to treat late stage cancer and you get much longer survival. So, you pay less for much better outcomes and that's enormous value to patients, payers, providers, and to society at large.