Dawn L. Hershman, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center, summarizes a joint ASCO/NCI session on this important topic, including the challenges and solutions.
Lawrence N. Shulman, MD, of the University of Pennsylvania, discusses his paper, which explores lessons learned from analyses of the National Cancer Data Base. (Abstract 173)
Kerin B. Adelson, MD, of the Yale Cancer Center, discusses an electronic decision support tool to capture staging data. This information allows automated reports for clinical trial screening, outcomes analysis, quality comparisons, and reporting. (Abstract 151)
Robert Miller, MD, ASCO’S Vice President of Quality and Guidelines, discusses CancerLinQ, the “big data” technology platform, and implementation of a rapid learning system for oncology based on Institute of Medicine principles.
Joseph O. Jacobson, MD, of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, discusses a session he co-chaired on the thorny questions of how best to improve cancer care.
Sandra L. Wong, MD, of the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, summarizes three abstracts for which she was the discussant. The topics were rates of surgical site infections, an online resource for hospital cancer surgery volumes, and barriers to oncology appointments at comprehensive cancer centers. (Abstracts 171, 172, 55)
