McKesson, Navigating Cancer Partner to Offer Oncologists Patient Care Management Platform

McKesson is collaborating with Navigating Cancer to offer a technology platform they say will provide personalized care for patients and help with value-based care requirements for community-based oncologists. The patient relationship management (PRM) platform includes patient care management tools, the ability to capture patient-reported outcomes, and a nurse triage tool for symptom management.

Complementing other solutions McKesson uses that can help guide treatment options for patients, this platform will help oncologists identify which patients are responding to treatments, how they are responding, different side effects they’re experiencing, and any challenges associated with the treatment.

By taking into account these patient-reported outcomes and real-world evidence, McKesson will be able to refine the definition of precision medicine that’s appropriate for specific patients, explained Nate Gosse, senior director of project management at McKesson, in an interview with The American Journal of Managed Care^®.

Through the platform, patients will have access to personalized information at all times and can report side effects before they escalate, receive medication reminders, and play a more proactive role in their care.

“The single most important place to start is with the patient experience and the quality of care that patient receives and the promptness of attention that a patient receives,” said Gosse. “Being able to efficiently, accurately, and consistently support patients as they engage with the practice, whether through a phone call or check in through the mobile web interface, that’s a critical first starting point for short-term outcomes.”

Thinking long term, Gosse said that the suite of tools will allow McKesson’s practices to have a more comprehensive understanding of what experiences and outcomes patients have on different therapies, which will enhance management capabilities.

In addition to enhancing patient experience and quality of care, the platform can also offer better utilization and cost management, as well as help providers meet value-based reporting requirements under programs such as the Oncology Care Model and Aetna’s Patient-Centered Medical Home Model, which have goals around managing not just utilization of certain drugs but also the total patient care experience and total cost of care for an individual patient.

“One of the biggest drivers for our interest in this is driven by our desire to support practices and our practices’ interest in performing total cost of care reimbursement models and total care management reimbursement models,” said Gosse. In turn, providers will be able to better manage the processes around keeping patients healthy, engaged, and out of the hospital, he said.