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Dr Sashi Naidu: Partnering With Molecular Diagnostic Labs Facilitates Advanced Cancer Care
Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates’ No One Left Alone initiative works to dismantle cancer health disparities and increase health care equity among its rural patient population. Sashi Naidu, MD, director of research, discusses delivering next-generation sequencing testing to patients.
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
What is the status of phase 2A of NOLA, whose focus is to expand genetic testing/next-generation sequencing and/or optimize biomarker testing?
The next phase, which we’ve just undertaken, is to partner with molecular diagnostic labs to increase the utilization and uptake of next-gen sequencing and biomarker testing in our rural patient population. The purpose of this is to not only optimize cancer care and bring potential for the latest therapeutics to our patient population who normally would not have access to this type of care, but to also foster a level of comfort between the patients and the labs, to say that they’re partnering with us and through us to improve their care generally. So, it’s been a very positive process so far.
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