Dr Charles Saunders Outlines the Increasing Importance of Technology in Practices

Practices increasingly need to use technology to deliver care in an increasingly value-based world, said Charles Saunders, MD, CEO of Integra Connect.

Transcript

Technology is increasingly important in delivery care—how are cancer practices benefiting from integrating technology into their practice?

Well, there are several elements of technology that are necessary in today’s post-MACRA [Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act], value-based world. The first of all is an electronic health record, which is a requirement of the Oncology Care Model. The second is technology to integrate data from a wide variety of sources, and to perform analysis of that data. Not only to measure either MIPS [Merit-based Incentive Payment System] or alternative payment model quality measures, but also to understand the drivers of cost and where there are opportunities to be more efficient and to save.

In addition, practices that are in the Oncology Care Model need to manage patients in between office visits to make sure that they avoid unnecessary emergency department visits, hospitalizations, and they engage in end-of-life, palliative care, and hospice care. So, having a care management platform and technology and to engage with patients is essential. And in cases where they are connecting clinical trials, they also need to have the ability to manage those trials and that generally means some type of clinical trials management system or ability to capture patient-entered data.