Dr Robert Daly Discusses How Clinical Pathways Can Reduce Disparities in Breast Cancer

There can be great disparities across the country and across races when it comes to cancer care, but clinical pathways can help standardize care so everyone gets the most efficacious treatments, said Robert Daly, MD, MBA, medical oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

Transcript

How can clinical pathways be used to reduce disparities in cancer care?

Well, I think that is a key way that pathways can be innovative, is how do we reduce these disparities that we know exist? In my own research, I was looking at adjuvant endocrine therapy in breast cancer, which we know is the standard of care for hormone positive breast cancers of certain stages, and we found great disparities across the country and across races as far as administering and prescribing these drugs.

So, I think pathways can help address disparities by standardizing best practices in care. So, it makes sure that all patients who are coming in to an institution or a clinic are getting those treatments that are viewed by the professionals as having the most efficacy for those patients. And that way we kind of standardize the care across the country about what people are getting for the different disease types.