ICYMI: Top Highlights From the 2022 Patient-Centered Oncology Care® Meeting

Patient-Centered Oncology Care^® (PCOC), the premier multistakeholder cancer care meeting from The American Journal of Managed Care^® (AJMC^®), took place in Nashville, Tennessee, in mid-November, with 2 days of discussions on how to achieve the related goals of reducing health care disparities and eliminating barriers for patients.

Here are some of the highlights of this annual event, which celebrated its 11th year.

Panel Addresses How Payers, Providers Can Optimally Use Real-World Evidence to Advance Cancer Care

Utilizing real-world evidence that applies to the specific care needs of certain patient populations can promote timely decision-making among payers and providers on the use of effective cancer therapies available on the market, said panelists.

Guideline-Directed Cancer Care Can Help Reduce Disparities, NCCN’s Schatz Says

Guideline-directed cancer care—with help from a clinical support tool—can close disparities while reducing costs more efficiently than other means, such as prior authorization.

"There are stark racial disparities between patients who do and do not receive optimal guideline-inherent care," Schatz said. "Patients who are Black are dramatically less likely to receive guideline-inherent care than patients who are White.”

Meet Dr Ishani Ganguli, Seema S. Sonnad Emerging Leader in Managed Care Research Award Recipient

Ishani Ganguli, MD, MPH, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, reacts to receiving the 2022 Seema S. Sonnad Emerging Leader in Managed Care Research Award. Ganguli's research is related to the value of ambulatory care and how it is paid for.

Dr Neil Iyengar Emphasizes Importance of Population Health Lens in Oncology at PCOC 2022

Population health brings an important lens to both oncology practice and research, said Neil Iyengar, MD, associate attending physician, breast medical service, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. It is helpful for oncologists to "zoom out" and think about how the bigger picture may influence cancer risk and response to cancer treatment.