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@justOncology

~ Musings on health, illness & evidence based medicine

@justOncology

Tag Archives: managed care

The Advent of Cancer Immunotherapy: Addressing Unmet Needs Part 1

03 Wednesday Jul 2013

Posted by @JustOncology in health, immunotherapy, oncology

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cancer, evidence based medicine, health, immunotherapy, innovation, integrative oncology, managed care, medical education, wellness

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH

The following is provided via the video series at the American Journal of Managed Care on ‘The Advent of Cancer Immunotherapy’, part 1 of a 3 part series:

 

In a discussion moderated by Dr. Peter Salgo, Drs. Jeffrey Weber, Michael Kolodziej, and Daniel J. George share their insights and perspectives on the rise of cancer immunotherapy, and its significance during a time in which cancer is recognized as the “new global pandemic” that has killed more than 600,000 US persons in 2012 alone.

 

For original source link, click here.

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Can ‘Social Media’ Bridge the Gap Between Payers and Oncologists?

19 Monday Nov 2012

Posted by @JustOncology in Uncategorized

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@tumorboard, cancer, digital media, health, innovation, managed care, medical education, participatory medicine, social media, twitter

By Gregg A. Masters, MPH

The continued penetration of social media tools, platforms and derivatives into medicine in general and oncology in particular continues to make steady if not uneven headway into the workflow of medical groups, physician networks if not individual practices.

Still somewhat of a ‘show me the money’ value proposition, social media leverages widely accessible web-based and mobile technologies to create and share user-generated content in a collaborative and more often than not near real time social context. The ultimate promise is, that it’s effective uptake will enable new opportunities for physicians, other healthcare professionals and even certain ‘calcified institutions’ i.e., hospitals, to interact with patients in new and different ways.

In cancer care social media can serve as a platform for patient education (see: @Chemotopia) if not as an authoritative health messaging resource, where oncologists fulfill their role as trusted publishers if not de-facto ‘search nodes on the web’. Additionally many believe these emerging technologies can add to professional development, see @TumorBoard, knowledge sharing, and even where appropriate direct patient interaction, if key legal and privacy concerns can be addressed prospectively.


In the professional development department, the video below was shot on November 16 2012 at American Journal of Managed Care’s (AJMC) ‘Translating Evidence-Based Research Into Value-Based Decisions in Oncology’.

Featuring Dennis Scanlon, PhD, who addresses the ‘Importance of Payer/Provider Relationships’. Dr. Scanlon is Professor of Health Policy and Administration, The Pennsylvania State University, stresses: ‘it is very important to bridge the gap between providers and payers in oncology management’ as ‘there is a lot of variation in the cost and quality of care in oncology. The goal is to identify the appropriate payments for quality care.’

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The ‘incident’

My life was essentially on autopilot. My oncology practice was very successful; in fact, too successful. All my time and energy was devoted to keeping pace with the increasing demands of the profession. Other pursuits, be they personal or professional, always seemed to take a back seat. My main unfulfilled passion was writing.

On January 7, 2011, everything changed. I had a new bovine aortic valve and three new coronary artery grafts. A life altering event, to say the least. Fortunately my recovery has been uneventful, and I had no evidence of muscle injury. So I’m extremely grateful for the pre-emptive surgery, and since I’m back to work on a part time basis, I now can devote some of my attention to writing.

For the past several years, a colleague, trusted advisor and friend of mine, Gregg Masters, had been prodding me to “just do it”, i.e., just start blogging, podcasting and life streaming my experiences in Medicine. He pointed out the value of my 36 years in clinical practice of hematology and medical oncology as 'elder wisdom' currency in relative short supply. In truth, there is certainly a lot to write about as the clinical knowledge base has grown enormously, to the point where management of all this information requires computers. Fortunately, technology has developed at a rapid rate also so that we can not only mine all this data to obtain meaningful information, but better disseminate it to each other, health plans (including government) and especially our patients. With the advent of social media including Twitter, Facebook and You Tube, this flow of information becomes a two way street allowing physicians to listen as well as talk. On a personal note, my wife published daily status updates during my surgery and through the post-operative period on a website called Caringbridge. She posted pictures as well as narrative. Colleagues, relatives, friends and patients had a window opened to them as to how I was doing, and they in turn wrote back notes of encouragement that touched me deeply.

When Gregg and I thought about it, his background not only in 'web 2.0' (social media) but perhaps more significantly his considerable experience in the business aspects of medicine brings value into the conversation as well. In today’s environment, physicians are constantly reminded that we not only are responsible for all aspects of caring for patients, but we are running a business as well. Years ago, I remember reading an excellent book called “The E-Myth Physician” by Michael Gerber. One of the chapters was devoted to the subject of “Money”. So Gregg’s knowledge complements my clinical background resulting in the birth of JustOncology.com.

Certainly there is no shortage of topics to discuss. Utilizing a variety of media: blogging (which addresses my passion for writing), audio and visual interviews with as many of the stakeholders in cancer care as possible, we hope to provide a forum for discussion of problems facing us. From these interactions, the desired outcome is to identify solutions that can only come from a collaborative effort.

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About

JustOncology.com is a joint publication of Richard Just, MD, aka @chemosabe1 on Twitter and Gregg Masters, MPH, aka @2healthguru on Twitter.

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