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K. Mileham
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ED 04 - How to Set up a Multidisciplinary Lung Cancer Program Within a Community Care Environment and Provide Everyone with the Best Care for Lung Cancer (ID 4)
- Event: WCLC 2015
- Type: Education Session
- Track: Community Practice
- Presentations: 1
- Moderators:J.M. Luna, S.E. Witta
- Coordinates: 9/07/2015, 14:15 - 15:45, Mile High Ballroom 2a-3b
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ED04.02 - How Can We Strengthen MD Care in Large Hospital Systems? (ID 1783)
14:15 - 15:45 | Author(s): K. Mileham
- Abstract
- Presentation
Abstract:
Lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related mortality in men and women. Since about 85% of all lung cancer care in the United States is provided in the community setting (1), it is imperative to optimize the delivery of accessible, high-quality lung cancer care in this environment. Implementation of a multidisciplinary clinic is not enough to strengthen physician care across large hospital systems. Many systems have an established weekly tumor board to review patient cases. These multidisciplinary conferences are a venue for involved specialties including thoracic surgery, medical oncology, pulmonary medicine, radiology, radiation oncology, and pathology to provide an opinion regarding the management of each presented case. This forum for open dialogue results in reinforced recommendations and streamlines patient care (2). It can be challenging for physicians in a community setting who are managing multiple tumor types to remain abreast of evolving information regarding each subgroup. Expanding multidisciplinary care beyond the case conference provides a more robust collaboration for physicians managing these patients. For physicians, journal club, continuing medical education programs, and standardized guidelines provide direction regarding the latest advances in diagnosis and management. Specifically in lung cancer, launching a screening program builds partnerships with radiologists pursuing early detection and expands relationships with other practitioners monitoring abnormal chest imaging. For patients, access to smoking cessation directives, chemotherapy teaching, palliative medicine, and survivorship programs enhances the care delivered in community lung cancer programs. A nurse navigator is an invaluable resource providing the patient and family support and education to improve the cancer experience. The navigator also serves as a liaison to ensure interdisciplinary coordination of cancer management. Clinical trials, genetic counselors, interpreters and geriatric oncologists should supplement well-integrated lung cancer networks. Even when all of these components are implemented into a community lung cancer program with the goal to provide the best care, if the core physician care is not strengthened as a part of this process, in a large hospital system, the program will fall short. Thus it is just not what should be executed but how. In large hospital systems, clinicians can become engaged through regional councils, designed to establish the aims of a cohesive lung cancer program and to create a model that will service these recommendations (3). Allowing system-wide participation in customizing the organizational structure of a lung cancer program will result in team development. If team is defined as “a group of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach, for which they hold themselves mutually accountable” (4), then it seems that strengthened care is inevitable. In a large health system, physician teams need to have shared goals and values, need to understand and recognize the competencies of other team members, and need to learn from other disciplines and respect their different views and perspectives. Individual team members may need to reassess exclusive claims to specialist knowledge and authority in order to form effective multidisciplinary teams which can provide the best care. By establishing a one-tiered system, physicians of various expertise find a comfortable niche that is not rewarded by self-promotion. Some physicians may maintain a more traditional generalized oncology clinic. Other physicians may adopt a more academic practice with subspecialty care, clinical trial participation, and literature publications. Collegiate collaborations between these two models strengthen physician care because the gap between private practice and academics is bridged within the same system. Because tumor boards provide multidisciplinary meetings but not necessarily multidisciplinary care, tumor boards may validate physician care but not necessarily strengthen it. A physical multidisciplinary clinic is not required to achieve this success. Instead, a solid team of engaged members focused on a specific disease will enrich the program. Routine meetings of a disease-specific section open to all interested provide a forum to review comprehensive needs for lung cancer patients. When a consistent message is issued from the group, physician care is strengthened. Telephone, video, and internet access to all disease-specific section meetings encourage participation. Communication facilitated by technology is the backbone to the success of this linked enterprise. The format of routine section meetings provides the venue to shift the “what” into the “how.” Announcements for lung cancer events are widely distributed. Consensus-driven standard algorithms of care are reviewed and updated. Finally, research options are reassessed. Integration of clinical trials in the community setting is necessary to strengthen care even in larger systems that may otherwise feel that care is already comprehensive. The best academic programs are often built on a reputation of offering research and clinical trial opportunities. Because the majority of patients with lung cancer are never seen in major academic centers, it is imperative that community programs become involved in clinical trials. Common protocol review (again maximizing participation with technology access) broadens interest. A centralized trials unit blends the team with appropriate system-wide delegation of resources. Utilization of a common internal review board allows for trials to open efficiently as well as simultaneously at multiple sites within the larger system. Local access obviates the need for travel, enhances program visibility, and provides ongoing relationships with the larger worldwide research community. Ultimately, a larger hospital system will benefit from restructuring the community. Physician care can be effectively strengthened not under the traditional hub-and-spoke model but instead as a cancer institute “without walls” (5). Regional councils, subspecialty sections, and multi-site clinical trial options under common review are all successful when system-wide participation is encouraged and when access is easily provided via advanced technology. Consider the large hospital organization as a system not a center. Aim to decentralize cancer care facilities by providing as many of the programs of a tertiary referral center throughout the region, limiting patient travel and lost time while still maintaining balanced quality (6). In order strengthen physician care in large hospital systems, growth measured as patient encounters is not as productive as reorganizing the care team. You can have “many” but still be “One.” 1. American College of Surgeons: Commission on cancer national cancer data base. Benchmark Reports v1.1 2. Fischel RJ, Dillman RO: Developing an effective lung cancer program in a community hospital setting. Clin Lung Cancer 10: 239-243, 2009 3. Dahele M, Ung Y, Meharchand J, et al: Integrating regional and community lung cancer services to improve patient care. Curr Oncol 14: 234-237, 2007 4. Carrier JM, Kendall I: Professionalism and interprofessionalism in health and community care; some theoretical issues. Interprofessional Issues in Community and Primary Health Care, 1995 5. Goldberg P: The Raghavan experiment. The Cancer Letter 39: 1-9, 2013 6. Raghavan D: Costs of cancer care: rhetoric, value, and steps forward. Semin in Oncol 40: 659-661, 2013
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