Dr Sibel Blau Discusses the Importance of Precision Medicine for Cancer Practices

The Quality Cancer Care Alliance (QCCA) is focusing on 2 major topics: value-based care and innovation, and precision oncology is the intersection of those 2 issues, said Sibel Blau, MD, medical oncologist, Northwest Medical Specialties, and president and CEO of QCCA.

Transcript

QCCA's annual leadership summit kicked off with 2 sessions on precision medicine. Why is that topic so important to cancer practices right now?

Because it just fits with the value-based care mentality. I mean, we are, the QCCA network is focusing on 2 major topics, although we have other goals together. But 1 is the research network and bringing clinical trials—and every kind of trial, not just the traditional trials—every kind of research to our patients so that we can contribute to that innovation and give access to treatment with the new drug development our patients.

The other thing is the value-based care. So when you put those 2 together, and when you look at the precision medicine definition, and what we heard from our speakers last week, that it is not just genomic testing, it's all about everything from diverse patient populations, to economics, to testing, to data-sharing platforms or data tools, and all of it together to be able to bring it into the patient. The talk about the right patient, the right time, and right place, and we have to provide the right care for the patient. And in order to do that, you have to look at it from a global perspective.

So, we thought when we were trying to bring our thoughts together, “what should be the theme of this meeting?” I think precision medicine is what we are trying to do in our practices in our daily practices and bring a bigger, broader perspective of precision medicine that fits with value-based care and research.