- Center on Health Equity and Access
- Clinical
- Health Care Cost
- Health Care Delivery
- Insurance
- Policy
- Technology
- Value-Based Care
Dr Kristine Slam Discusses Preoperative Practices to Increase Treatment Value for Patients With Breast Cancer
In this interview from our recent Institute for Value-Based Medicine® event, Kristine Slam, MD, FACP, Central Ohio Surgical Associates, discusses the positive impact that Choosing Wisely and enhanced recovery after surgery, or EROS, protocols have had on patients receiving treatment for breast cancer.
Kristine Slam, MD, FACP, Central Ohio Surgical Associates, spoke at our recent Institute for Value-Based Medicine® event, held in partnership with the Zangmeister Cancer Center of Columbus, Ohio, on September 14. Here she discusses the positive impact that Choosing Wisely and enhanced recovery after surgery (EROS) protocols have had on patients receiving treatment for breast cancer.
Transcript
What measurable benefits have been observed from the shift to value-based care for breast cancer?
Two of the things that come most to my mind are the Choosing Wisely campaign and EROS protocols.
Choosing Wisely actually started back in 2012, and it was a bunch of societies coming together for mostly patient but also physician education about practices that have been routine for years that actually don't provide that much value to the patient. In the breast cancer world, this actually started by us surgeons not doing unnecessary axillary dissections [or] ordering unnecessary tumor markers. Now it has evolved into, again, ongoing education about not doing routine MRIs, not routinely doing sentinel lymph node biopsies in elderly or low-risk patients, not routinely reexcising lumpectomy close margins. So Choosing Wisely has, again, eliminated both short-term and long-term side effects for patients and financial toxicity.
The second thing that is helpful is something called EROS protocols, and these are specific to surgery. What the EROS protocols are designed for is limiting length of time in the hospital, limiting side effects, and it's through standardization of surgical practices. A lot of this involves preoperative education of patients, but it also is, again, very evidence based about things that work perioperatively to limit patient problems.
The Joint Commission is launching the Rural Health Clinic Accreditation Program to standardize staff training and patient care practices at rural health clinics nationwide; the American Cancer Society recently launched the largest-ever study of cancer risk and outcomes in Black women; the HHS COVID-19 vaccination campaign saved $732 billion by preventing illness and related costs.
Read More
Tackling Health Inequality: The Power of Education and Experience
April 30th 2024To help celebrate and recognize National Minority Health Month, we are bringing you a special month-long podcast series with our Strategic Alliance Partner, UPMC Health Plan. Welcome to our final episode of this limited series and our conversation with Janine Jelks-Seale, MSPPM, director of health equity at UPMC Health Plan.
Listen
Examining Low-Value Cancer Care Trends Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
April 25th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the April 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on the rates of low-value cancer care services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Listen
AA Unlikely to Cause Anxiety, Depression but May Be Affected by Mental Illness
May 7th 2024A Mendelian randomization study using genetic analysis found that alopecia areata (AA) increases the risk of anxiety and depression, but not the other way around, providing unique evidence for a causal link while adding to existing evidence.
Read More
