Team-Based Cancer Care Vital in the Community: Danielle Roman, PharmD, BCOP

Community-based oncology care faces unique hurdles, from accessing cardio-oncology expertise to managing rapidly evolving clinical literature. In this interview from a recent Institute for Value-Based Medicine® event hosted by The American Journal of Managed Care in Pittsburgh, Danielle Roman, PharmD, BCOP, illustrates several difficulties inherent in delivering community-based oncologic care.

At the event, she was a panelist on the discussion, “Gaps and Unmet Needs in the Journey of Patients With Breast Cancer.” An oncology clinical specialist and manager for the clinical pharmacy team in oncology with Allegheny Health Network, Roman treats patients who are living with breast cancer, as well as many other disease states.

Rewatch part 1 to learn more about the intersection of pharmacy and breast cancer care.

This transcript was lightly edited for clarity; captions were auto-generated.

Transcript

Can you discuss some of the unique challenges you encounter in the community setting that a more generalized pharmacist may not?

One of the challenges that we see in a community setting is lack of access to specialized resources. [An example] of that could be cardio-oncology. We have patients who are receiving cardiotoxic medications who may need specific expertise in that area. Sometimes it's difficult to get those resources. I think another example of this would be patients who need genetic counseling. It can be difficult to access some of those specialized services in the community setting.

I think another challenge is just the fact that oftentimes in the community setting, we're working with providers who are seeing many different types of cancer on a regular basis, and so it can be really difficult to keep up with the rapidly evolving literature in so many different disease sites, so really just emphasizing the need for a team approach in managing these patients and just kind of the expertise of the team here.