ACCC 50th Business Meeting Brings New Name, Focus on Workforce

With a new name that reflects its modern mission, the rebranded Association of Cancer Care Centers—formerly the Association of Community Cancer Centers—will open its 50th Annual Meeting and Cancer Center Business Summit today in Washington, DC, at the Capitol Hilton.

ACCC logo | Image credit: ACCC

ACCC unveiled its new name and colorful logo on February 15, 2024, reflecting the breadth of the cancer providers under its umbrella. In its statement, ACCC said the name change would “illustrate the dynamic future of cancer care for its members.”

Early today, ACCC members—who include individual multidisciplinary oncology professionals and both large and small cancer care centers—will spend time on Capitol Hill bringing their agenda to members of Congress, as advocacy has always been part of the group’s mission along with education. ACCC also includes state-level organizations that advocate or patients with cancer in state legislatures.

"All those involved in this strategic planning process believe that this new name reflects the evolution and growth of our organization, aligning ACCC more closely with the diverse needs of its members and the patients they serve, and positioning ACCC for the next 50 years of growth," ACCC President Olelekan Ajayi, PharmD, MBA, and ACCC President-Elect Nadine Barrett, PhD, MA, MS, said in a statement.

Olelekan Ajayi, PharmD, MBA | Image credit: Highlands Oncology Group, PA

“(Re)Building the Oncology Workforce to Deliver Next Generation Cancer Care,” the yearlong theme selected by Ajayi, who is chief operating officer for Highlands Oncology Group, PA, is reflected across the agenda of this year’s business meeting.

Workforce theme. Friday’s keynote speaker, Katherine A. Meese, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Health Services Administration, University of Alabama at Birmingham, will address “Managing and Optimizing the Human Margin.” And the heart of the business meeting will kick off Thursday with the session “Championing an Institutional Culture of Well-Being in a Post-Pandemic Oncology Workforce,” featuring Mila Felder, MD, FACEP, enterprise vice president, Well-Being for All Teammates, Advocate Aurora Health. This session is expected to touch on the drug shortage crisis that has affected patients and providers alike in cancer care.

Quality improvement is also seen across the agenda, starting with this afternoon’s preconference workshop, “Adopting New Innovations in Oncology,” which will help attendees learn to construct, perform, and measure initiatives that lead to quantifiable return on investment.

Precision medicine. Sigrun Hallmeyer, MD, medical director at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital and codirector, medical research, Advocate Aurora Health, will lead a discussion on integration of the electronic health record to promote precision medicine, which will feature representatives from the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, as well as Flatiron Health and Epic.

Reimbursement. Bringing in supportive care services can’t be done unless practices figure out how to pay for them, and on Thursday afternoon Krista Nelson, LCSW, OSW-C, FAOSW, FAPOS, FACCC, manager of OSW Supportive Care at Providence Cancer Institute, will guide a large panel through a discussion of how to pay for patient navigation, sexual health services, mental health services, and programs for LBGTQ patients.

Payment models. Changes to oncology payment models are the topic of “One Voice, One Message,” a talk by Barry Russo, MBA, CEO of The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders, which is based in the Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, area. Russo’s talk aims to identify barriers to effective delivery of value-based care and shared decision-making, and it will explore the use of data analytics.