ASCO in Action Podcast

In the latest ASCO in Action podcast, ASCO CEO Dr. Clifford A. Hudis shares a quick preview of what's to come for the 2020 ASCO Advocacy Summit and Week of Action, which will take place September 14-18.

Typically, ASCO volunteers from across the country gather in Washington, D.C. to advocate for policies that will improve access to high-quality, equitable care for people with cancer and ensure robust funding for cancer research through in-person meetings with their Members of Congress. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 ASCO Advocacy Summit will be a virtual event, but participants can expect the same important advocacy and education opportunities that the event provides every year. All ASCO members are encouraged to participate in the Congressional Week of Action by signing up with the ACT Network (through the Advocacy Center on ASCO.org).

Subscribe to the ASCO in Action podcast through iTunes and Google Play.

Transcript

Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

Dr. Clifford Hudis: Welcome to the ASCO in Action Podcast, brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network, a collection of 9 programs covering a range of educational and scientific content and offering enriching insight into the world of cancer care. You can find all of the shows, including this one, at “Podcast dot ASCO dot org” (podcast.asco.org)

The ASCO in Action Podcast is ASCO’s podcast series that explores the policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and the individuals we care for—people with cancer.

I’m Dr. Clifford Hudis, CEO of ASCO and the host of the ASCO in Action podcast series. For this podcast, I wanted to share with listeners a preview of the 2020 ASCO Advocacy Summit and Week of Action taking place September 14-18.

Typically, ASCO gathers volunteer advocates in Washington, D.C., in September for education sessions and in-person meetings with their Members of Congress.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic—like so many events scheduled to take place this year—the 2020 ASCO Advocacy Summit will be a virtual event, but that said, participants can expect the same advocacy and education opportunities that the event provides every year.

ASCO volunteers will meet with Members of Congress and their staff by phone or video to advocate for policies that will improve access to high-quality, equitable care for people with cancer and ensure robust funding for cancer research.

Advocacy Summit attendees will also attend webinars to receive education and training on lobbying Congress and the current political landscape.

What is different this year is our online Week of Action, which will give all ASCO members an opportunity to advocate on critical issues of great importance to the cancer care delivery system in the United States.

Participants in the Week of Action will amplify the Advocacy Summit’s messages through email and social media messages to Members of Congress using ASCO’s ACT Network. And, it’s easy to get involved and make your voice heard. You just need to click on the link to the ACT Network in the Advocacy Center on ASCO.org and sign up to receive ASCO ACT Network emails. Then, you’ll get all the information on the fastest and easiest ways to contact lawmakers delivered directly to your inbox. We hope you will participate as much as you can—the effort will take just minutes. Even one message a day by every ASCO member to your representatives in Congress will have a tremendous impact.

During the virtual Advocacy Summit, which will be held in the middle of the Week of Action on September 16, ASCO volunteer advocates will have their virtual meetings with Members of Congress and their staff. The three issues or “legislative asks” that they will be discussing will be the same asks that ASCO members will contact their Members of Congress about during the Week of Action.

One, we will ask Congress to support legislation—The CLINICAL TREATMENT Act, which will give all Medicaid beneficiaries coverage of routine costs when enrolled in clinical trials—coverage Medicare and private insurance plans already provide. The importance of improving health equity has become even more apparent during the COVID-19 pandemic, and this legislation takes us one step closer to that goal.

Two, ASCO volunteer advocates will request lawmakers to co-sponsor the Safe Step A...

CancerLinQ Medical Director Dr. Robert Miller discusses how ASCO’s new initative, mCODE (Minimal Common Oncology Data Elements), will help take the oncology community one step further to achieving interoperability in electronic health record systems.

In the latest AiA podcast with host ASCO CEO Dr. Clifford Hudis, Dr. Miller says that doctors are expected by their patients to have all their relevant medical information to ensure they receive the highest quality cancer care. mCODE is working to encourage vendors to adopt a consistent set of data elements in their EHR platforms to achieve that goal.

Transcript

Survey Promotion: If you like what you hear from the ASCO podcast, please let us know. Take our listener survey and help shape the future of the ASCO Podcast Network. Visit podcast.asco.org and click on the survey link. Once again, that's podcast.asco.org. The survey will just take a few minutes to complete and will help us get to know you better. Thank you so much for listening.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

Dr. Clifford Hudis: Welcome to this ASCO in Action Podcast, brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network. This is a collection of nine programs covering a wide range of educational and scientific content and offering enriching insights into the world of cancer care. You can find all of ASCO podcasts, including this one, at podcast.asco.org. The ASCO in Action Podcast is ASCO's podcast series that explores policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and the individuals we care for-- people with cancer.

My name is Clifford Hudis, and I am the CEO of ASCO, as well as the host of the ASCO in Action Podcast series. For today's podcast, I am delighted to have as my guest Dr. Robert Miller. Dr. Miller is the medical director of ASCO's CancerLinQ initiative. And as many of our listeners know, CancerLinQ is a big data technology initiative that collects and analyzes real world cancer care data from multiple health care IT systems seeking to deliver insights to physicians, improve quality of patient care, and support new research.

What our listeners may be less familiar with is that, earlier this year, ASCO and CancerLinQ announced a very exciting collaboration that has the potential of bringing the oncology community one step closer to our goal of achieving interoperability amongst electronic health record systems. The project is called mCODE. That's a lowercase m and then capital C-O-D-E. It stands for Minimal Common Oncology Data Elements, or mCODE.

Dr. Miller is going to tell us a whole lot more about this important initiative. And I welcome you. Thanks for joining us, Dr. Miller.

Dr. Robert Miller: Thanks for having me.

Dr. Clifford Hudis: So, we've all heard about the inability of electronic health record systems to share information with each other. And I always, at the beginning of this, used to talk about my favorite proverbial story. A patient is discharged from a big-city emergency room after a month in the hospital. That hospital uses a single electronic record system, all the details are there. The person is on their way home and developed chest pain, ends up in a neighboring emergency room a mile away. And in most cases, how much of their record from the hospital where they spent a month, to the hospital where they're finding themselves in the emergency room, is transmittable at that moment?

Dr. Robert Miller: Yeah, I think that's an important question. And that's an example that I think we all have had experience with ourselves personally in health care, or their families. And it's easy to say, well, that's because the systems don't talk to each other. To answer your question specifically, it's probably a small percentage, a minority. There are certain laboratory values and other things that may make it across, but a lot of the important information is missing. And it's just not easy to get.

Dr. Clifford Hudis: Well, if they're in different health care systems, and even sometimes if they have the same health record system installed, sometimes there's essentially no real transmission possible. And I mention that only because I think outside of medicine, people who are less familiar with this expect this to work like banking or airline reservations. They expect transmittal of the entire package of relevant information at that moment's notice. And unfortunately, sadly, in modern medicine, and indeed in oncology, we don't yet have this. And I'll just close this little editorial solil...

In the latest ASCO in Action Podcast, ASCO CEO Dr. Clifford A. Hudis is joined by Dr. Jeffrey Ward, a leading contributor to the society’s updated Patient-Centered Oncology Payment (PCOP) model, to discuss how PCOP can improve patient care and lower costs.

“If we don’t find a way to bend the cost curve, we’re not going to be able to fulfil the mission to take care of our patients,” said Jeffrey Ward, MD, FASCO. Currently the clearest way to move from fee-for-service to value-based care, notes Dr. Ward, PCOP “will invigorate our specialty and our practices” and “improve the way we give care.”

Take the ASCO Podcast Survey and help improve our podcast program: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ascopodcasts

Transcript

Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

Dr. Clifford Hudis: Welcome to this ASCO in Action podcast, brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network. This is a collection of nine programs covering a wide range of educational and scientific content and offering enriching insights into the world of cancer care. You can find all of ASCO's podcasts, including this one, at podcast.asco.org.

The ASCO in Action podcast series explores policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and most importantly, those individuals we care for-- people with cancer. My name is Clifford Hudis, and I'm the CEO of ASCO, as well as the host of the ASCO in Action podcast series.

For today's podcast, I'm delighted to have as a returning guest Dr. Jeffery Ward, past chair of ASCO's Government Relations Committee. He's here today to talk with us about ASCO's newly updated Patient-Centered Oncology Payment model, or PCOP. This is an alternative payment model which he had a major role in authoring and developing. Dr. Ward, who in many respects could be considered a Founding Father of ASCO's payment reform initiative, is going to tell us more about the significant updates in this model, its goals, and how it could work to improve care for patients with cancer. Welcome, Dr. Ward.

Dr. Jeffery Ward: Thank you. Good to be here.

Dr. Clifford Hudis: Jeff, I'm going to dive right in. I've called you a Founding Father because you played such a critical role in shaping ASCO's more than five yearlong effort to develop a viable alternative to the current pay-for-service reimbursement system. Before we get into the updated model, can you tell our listeners a little bit about how we got here today? Why are you a Founding Father?

Dr. Jeffery Ward: Well, my recollection is that it actually began about eight years ago, but it took three years to get a work product. Through an intermediary, the Brookings Institute, they asked ASCO if we had any ideas or offerings that the Congressional Budget Office could score as savings without driving oncology out of business.

At the time, I was a brand-new CPC chair, and waiting with Rocky Morton from Iowa. We pulled together-- the CPC steering committee-- about 15 doctors, mostly from community practices, and had some fairly heated meetings focused on what has proven, over time, to be a very tall peak to climb-- alternatives to buy-and-bill chemotherapy.

At the end of the day, we told the supercommittee that we had nothing for them but promised to stay engaged. That wasn't a good feeling. It wasn't a good day. And we decided that that wouldn't happen again. So, we put together a payment reform workgroup consisting of community, hospital, and academic-based oncologists, pulled in a lot of ASCO support staff, and hired a consultant-- or mediator-- to try and keep us focused. The only prerequisite to be on this group was that you had to be reform-minded, and our task was to forget everything that existed and propose a novel reimbursement model.

Dr. Clifford Hudis: Well, that brings us right to the current day and we recently put out the update of this. The official name is the ASCO Patient-Centered Oncology Payment, which is a community-based medical home model-- or PCOP for short. But at a very high level, can you tell us, what does this updated PCOP do? What makes it unique as an alternative payment model?

Dr. Jeffrey Ward: I think at a high level, it makes the oncologists responsible for being a good steward of our cancer care delivery system-- I think, arguably, the best cancer care delivery system in the world-- without making us responsible at the same time for what the market will bear-- drug prices that are both ...

On September 25-26, ASCO held its 2019 Advocacy Summit, during which oncology care providers from across the United States came to Capitol Hill to urge Members of Congress to support policies that will improve access to high-quality, high-value care for people living with cancer. Listen to coverage in this new ASCO in Action podcast.

Transcript

Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

Dr. Clifford Hudis: Welcome to this ASCO in Action podcast, brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network, a collection of nine programs covering a range of educational and scientific content, and offering enriching insight into the world of cancer care. You can find all of ASCO's podcasts, including this one, at podcast.asco.org.

My name is Clifford Hudis, and I'm the CEO of ASCO, as well as the host of the ASCO in Action podcast series, which explores policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and the individuals we care for: people with cancer.

Recently, ASCO held its 2019 Advocacy Summit. More than 130 oncology care providers from across the United States came here to Washington DC to meet with members of Congress and to urge support for policies that improve access to high-quality, high-value care for people living with cancer.

This is one of the highest impact events that ASCO holds every year. There's nothing like seeing ASCO advocates hit the halls of Congress with such passion and dedication, with the collective goal of ensuring that lawmakers focus on policy changes that will improve the lives of people with cancer and the care they receive.

ASCO president Dr. Howard, or "Skip", Burris kicked off the activities at the Advocacy Summit and spoke about why it's so important for us to be on Capitol Hill.

Dr. Howard “Skip” Burris: ASCO's on Capitol Hill today so that our members actually get to meet with their representatives and congressmen and their staff so they understand how important cancer care is to this country, and to make sure that they understand the issues that are facing our patients that we care for who are experiencing cancer.

The decisions that Congress makes, with regard to health care and cancer care in particular, is so important and powerful to cancer patients. Access to therapy, timely access to getting treatments initiated, making sure that there's appropriate coverage of new therapies, all those things are critical for us to implement the great scientific and clinical advances that we've made into the care and outcomes for our patients.

Dr. Clifford Hudis: ASCO advocates asked lawmakers for their support for legislation that will make a big difference in the lives of individuals with cancer. One of those pieces of legislation is HR 913, the CLINICAL TREATMENT Act, which would guarantee coverage of the routine care costs associated with clinical trial participation for Medicaid enrollees with life-threatening conditions, including cancer. Medicaid is the only major payer, including Medicare, that is not required to cover these care costs today, and we hope to address this.

Dr. Karen Winkfield, chair of ASCO's Diversity Inclusion Task Force, says that changing this policy is critical to improving the validity of clinical research data and to improving patient outcomes. Dr. Karen Winkfield joined other ASCO advocates in urging members of Congress to support this bill.

Dr. Karen Winkfield: So the Clinical Treatment Act is really vitally important because it will allow all patients equal opportunity to access clinical trials that would be beneficial to not only them, but also other individuals who may come from the same backgrounds, including racial and ethnically diverse populations, but also those of lower socioeconomic status. We want our clinical trial to be representative of every single individual in this country.

Dr. Clifford Hudis: The Advocacy Summit was packed with meetings with congressional lawmakers and their staff. Dr. Jason Westin, a member of ASCO's Government Relations Committee, participated in the summit and he spoke about why these direct meetings are so important.

Dr. Jason Westin: I think advocacy is very important for cancer doctors and cancer professionals to be an advocate for our patients. I think that there are so many opportunities for us to help our patients in the clinic, in the research arena. But if we're not involved in advocacy, then others are advocating in other directions that may not benefit our patients in the way that we would like.

Man...

Subscribe through iTunes and Google Play.

In this interview, ASCO President Dr. Howard A. “Skip” Burris discusses why he became an oncologist, the importance of mentors in his career, the most significant changes he’s witnessed in cancer care during the past three decades, and his vision for the coming year as he serves in this top volunteer position. Dr. Burris stresses that we can’t “divide and conquer, to conquer cancer,” a message underscored by his ASCO presidential theme, “Unite and Conquer: Accelerating Progress Together.”

Find all of ASCO's podcasts at podcast.asco.org

Shannon McKernin: Hi. My name is Shannon McKernin, and I'm the host of the ASCO Guidelines Podcast series. When a new ASCO guideline publishes, we release a podcast episode featuring an interview with one or more expert panel members. Each episode highlights the key recommendations and the implications for patients and providers. You can find the ASCO Guidelines Podcast series on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to this show, and you can find all nine of ASCO's podcasts, which cover a wide range of educational and scientific content and offer enriching insight into the world of cancer care at podcast.asco.org.

Disclaimer: The purpose of this podcast is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional medical care and is not intended for use in the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this podcast express their own opinions, experience, and conclusions. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity, or therapy should not be construed as an ASCO endorsement.

Clifford Hudis: Welcome to this ASCO in Action podcast brought to you by the ASCO Podcast Network, a collection of nine programs covering a range of educational and scientific content offering enriching insights into the world of cancer care. You can find all of ASCO's podcasts including this one at podcast.asco.org.

This ASCO in Action podcast is part of our series exploring policy and practice issues that impact oncologists, the entire cancer care delivery team, and the individuals who care for people with cancer. My name is Clifford Hudis, and I am the CEO of ASCO as well as a host of the ASCO in Action podcast series.

For today's podcast, I am delighted to be joined by Dr. Howard, or "Skip", Burris. He's ASCO's president for the 2020 term, and if we're lucky today, we'll find out why he's called Skip. In the meantime, Dr. Burris is joining me to share his vision for his presidential year. That is what he hopes to accomplish by this top ASCO volunteer leadership position is an opportunity to leave a lasting mark on our organization and indeed the larger oncology community. Skip, welcome and thank you for joining me today.

Howard “Skip” Burris: Thank you for having me. Looking forward to the conversation.

Clifford Hudis: So, Skip, every one of us comes to oncology for individual reasons and personal motivations, and I know that's true for you as well. So before we get into the details of your current role at ASCO, I think our listeners will be interested in learning why you became a medical oncologist when there are so many places to go in medicine, so many exciting specialties, what was it that drove you to choose taking care of patients with cancer for your career?

Howard “Skip” Burris: Interesting question and story. I was driven to medicine really thinking that I wanted to do something that was meaningful, something that helped others. And I was influenced by actually a number of friends whose fathers were physicians when I was in high school. And as I initially went into the medical field, I thought surgery was so exciting, and I actually spent many of my electives doing surgical sub-specialties and in particular thoracic surgery. And it was an exciting time in the '80s with heart transplantation and bypass surgeries.

And yet I also was dissatisfied with the fact that it seemed transactional. While important, and certainly lifesaving for those patients, these were surgeries and then, quote unquote, were done taking care of that patient. And then I had a seminal moment after rounds one day when we were in the intensive care unit. And I was talking to a patient, and the team moved on. And my attending yelled at me, “hey, Burris, what are you doing?” I looked at him and he said, “Come on. He's fixed. Let's go.”

And I half smiled and I thought, well, this guy's got such an interesting story and he was terribly appreciative of the care he'd receive, but he looked at that attending as somebody had truly had saved his life. And so fast forward to fumbling through internship and trying to fi...