Tesh Khullar on the Importance of Community Oncology Patients Being Involved in Clinical Trials

Community oncologists face a challenge in getting patients into clinical trials, but new technology could help them get access to those trials, explained Tesh Khullar, senior vice president of provider solutions at Flatiron Health.

Transcript (slightly modified)

What is the importance of getting patients treated at community oncology practices more involved in clinical trials?

Right now, in the academic setting and in the hospital setting, 10% of all of the accruals come from them, and it’s this belief that the community oncology practices cannot actually accrue patients at scale. So, we have a tech solution that we think is going to help disrupt that because if we can actually get the lower cost model better for patients-equal-outcomes, to actually accrue more patients, we do believe that pharmaceutical manufacturers, co-ops, and other organizations will go back to community oncology, which once again, is the better mechanism of care and more cost efficient. We want to be able to help community oncology level the field form the clinical trials perspective and get access to a lot of the same trials that only academics get, using technology.