Supportive Cancer Care Models and Equity – Reaching the Underserved through Telehealth

A NEW ALLIANCE TO ADVANCE PATIENT-CENTERED CANCER CARE WEBINAR

The world has changed significantly over the past year, but the needs of vulnerable and underserved patients remain as urgent as ever. Supportive care interventions aim to prevent and treat physical, psychological, social, and spiritual problems related to cancer. Alliance program partners are improving the quality of life of vulnerable and underserved persons with cancer through supportive care programs that aim to address their psychosocial concerns and reduce barriers to care. As many clinical centers around the country have had to increase their reliance on telehealth to deliver safe cancer care, the Alliance sites, too, have been working to adapt to the new world order.

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Evaluating the Sustainability of Oncology Navigation with the AONN+ Navigation Metrics Toolkit

A new Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care Webinar

Patient navigators have been assisting persons with cancer for approximately twenty years. However, there is little consensus on how the role should be defined, or how to best evaluate a navigator’s impact on patient care. Demonstrating the value of navigation is an essential step in determining the sustainability of these programs, making the business case for a patient-centered approach to cancer care.

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Deactivating Implicit Bias, Eliminating Treatment Disparities in Oncology: The Road Ahead

A new Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care Webinar

Our society can place white culture, ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions above others. A series of tragic events have brought this critical issue back into the public consciousness. Health care professionals, like many others, are striving to bring about lasting change. Naturally focused on helping others, clinical care teams all over the country have been explicitly working on becoming better allies to their vulnerable and underserved patients. Despite their best efforts, many are still manifesting what the experts refer to as implicit bias, or prejudicial and racist thoughts embedded into an individual’s mind on a subconscious, perhaps hidden level. These automatic judgments can significantly affect the way minority patients experience the health care system, from spending less time with physicians than their white counterparts to feeling less involved in decision-making regarding treatment.

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Cancer Care and Health Equity in the COVID-19 Era

A new Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care Webinar

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many health care systems to alter the way they provide services to their communities, embracing substantial changes to their clinical practice. With institutions considering making some of these changes permanent, it is essential to reflect on the implications for vulnerable and underserved patient
populations. How will they fare navigating a new system of care increasingly centered on technology and remote services?

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Advancing Health Equity with Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs): An Oncology Perspective

A new Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care Webinar

Promoting health equity is an important objective for most oncology and public health researchers; however, developing an intervention designed to move beyond the written word and into clinical practice can be a challenging process. This webinar will explore what it means to work with FQHCs on pragmatic cancer-based interventions, bridging the gap between academic research and the needs of community health centers. Julie Armin, PhD and Nancy Johnson, RN, MSN, MS, PhD will introduce the University of Arizona’s fruitful collaboration with El Rio Health, one of the largest federally qualified health centers in the country. Together, they will share their experiences in developing, implementing, and evaluating interventions that deliver long-lasting community impact.

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ALLIANCE TO ADVANCE PATIENT-CENTERED CANCER CARE WEBINAR

Securing Strategic Partnerships that Improve Access to Cancer Care

Assisting underserved patients is an ongoing challenge for many cancer centers across the country. Two institutions on the front lines of achieving health equity have demonstrated creative solutions that improve access to cancer care for underserved patients in a tangible way. The Ohio State University James Comprehensive Cancer Center is able to provide smart phones for patients to monitor symptoms and remain in close contact with their care team at no added cost. The Georgia Cancer Center for Excellence at Grady Health System has secured several reliable transportation options for their patients. Both organizations have leveraged key partnerships with for- and not-for-profit organizations looking to serve the public good.

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Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care Webinar

The Oncology Care Model: Implications for Cancer Care Delivery and Payment Reform

Cancer care is very expensive, and the cost is rising at an unsustainable rate. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reported that medical expenditures related to cancer are expected to stretch to $158 billion in the year 2020. Cancer patients receiving systemic therapy represent the group with the highest costs. The Oncology Care Model is the largest medical subspecialty alternative payment model developed and administered by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation. This pilot program, launched in July 2016, aims to improve the delivery of cancer care while controlling costs by holding providers responsible for the total cost of care. Many of the changes in care delivery required to succeed in this program involve fundamental practice transformation. In this webinar, Dr. Michael Kolodziej will discuss the rationale for this model, results to date, as well as a forecast for the ultimate results of the model. He will also project the next stage of cancer care payment reform.

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Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care Webinar

Life After Grant Funding: Making the Business Case for Your Intervention

Many grant proposals require a plan for sustainability, carrying the expectation that a funded program will continue to be viable once the start-up resources have run out. This can be a challenging proposition for medical researchers, who have to run their interventions while identifying all direct and indirect financial benefits of their work. Drawing from his international research experience, Dr. J. Brian Cassel will discuss his approach to developing long-term funding models in palliative care, presenting universal considerations that could assist researchers in maintaining clinical and quality-improvement programs that expand access to care.

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Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care Webinar

A Report from the National Navigation Roundtable: The State of Patient Navigation Today

According to the American Medical Association, a patient navigator is someone who provides personal guidance to patients as they move through the health care system. Patient navigators may have professional medical, legal, financial, or administrative experience, or they may have personally faced health care-related challenges and want to help others who find themselves in similar situations1.

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Alliance to Advance Patient-Centered Cancer Care Webinar

Bridging Primary Care and Oncology in the Era of Patient-Centered Cancer Care: Challenges, Opportunities and Lessons Learned

The role of primary care in cancer control is expanding, due in part to an increased emphasis on cancer care delivery that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values (Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. Institute of Medicine, 2001). Current research data shows that Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) have a positive impact on early cancer diagnosis, treatment outcomes, and survivorship support, improving the quality of life of cancer patients across the continuum of care (Coburn & Collingridge, 2015).

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