Segment 1 - Evidence-Based Decision Making and Clinical Pathway Adherence

Seema Sonnad, PhD, associate editor for The American Journal of Managed Care, and director of health services research at The Value Institute at Christiana Care Health System, led a panel discussion that focused on oncology clinical pathway adherence. She introduced panelists Jennifer Malin, MD, PhD, medical director for Oncology for Care Management, WellPoint; Chadi Nabhan, MD, FACP, associate professor of medicine, section of hematology and oncology, medical director, Clinical Outpatient Cancer Center, the University of Chicago; Dr I W Tischler, national medical director, Oncology, Cigna; and Peter Paul Yu, MD, FASCO, 2014-2015 ASCO president, medical oncologist and hematologist, director of cancer research at Palo Alto Medical Foundation.

Dr Sonnad began by asking panelists what incentives providers might have to promote pathway adherence. She also asked what criteria an institute uses to determine the uptake of clinical pathways.

Dr Yu said that the current US healthcare system is unaffordable and unsustainable — the question, he said, is how to change it.

“Institutions will need to get to the point where they begin to say, ‘we need to get a handle on other rising costs of care. And we need to look at what decisions are being made and the downstream consequence of that,” Dr Yu says. He adds this will be a “seat change” for physicians who normally do not discuss costs during the decision-making process.

Panelists concur with Dr Yu’s points, suggesting that evidence-based practices will be important for physicians and institutions alike.