Dr Funda Meric-Bernstam on Why the Patient Voice Is So Important

Ahead of the 2021 Cholangiocarcinoma Foundation Annual Conference, Funda Meric-Bernstam, MD, co-chair of the event and chair of the Department of Investigational Cancer Therapeutics and medical director of the Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, gives her input on the importance of hearing from patients and advocates as well as physicians in discussions around cholangiocarcinoma treatment.

Transcript

Can you discuss the importance of both the physician and the patient advocate voices in discussions surrounding cholangiocarcinoma?

yeah so you know this this meaning i have to say is very unique from that standpoint it is a you know by far my favorite meeting not just because of the content because you know cleanser crystals are very interesting disease to be fair but because it is really a true partnership no we have clinicians that take care of cleanser carcinoma we have researchers that do research in cleanser carcinoma we have patients and their loved ones together and really talking about what's important and what's evolving but really i think hearing the patient stories hearing the caregiving concerns really makes us i think think harder about you know a there's an urgency and you know every day you realize that you know there's somebody in need but also you know how do we design you know these treatments or these you know clinical trials to be more accessible how do we ensure that every patient no ultimately has access to this and how do we make this you know more user friendly so that you know this is not a completely you know changing people's lives because they're spending all their time trying to schedule things but you know how can we do use telemedicine more effectively how do we you know communicate with people so i really think you know having these discussions about you know creating partnerships so you work together and you talk together and you're more accessible and you know i think that's very important and i always really am very enthusiastic about accepting random emails saying you know i have this clicker alteration and what should i do as well as it really just chatting about the challenges of you know clinical care or you know trials or you know just how do we structure things bigger We do need to work together as teams to really improve customer care throughout.