Lee N. Newcomer, MD, of the UnitedHealth Group, gives his perspective on how to assess quality in the age of precision medicine.
Randall F. Holcombe, MD, of the Icahn Mount Sinai School of Medicine, discusses the challenges of delivering quality care in an academic setting at a large hospital.
Kerin B. Adelson, MD, of the Yale Cancer Center, discusses the major healthcare cost drivers at the end of life—aggressive treatments, emergency room visits, and futile care—and strategies for improving value. (Abstract 3)
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)
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)
Dawn L. Hershman, MD, of Columbia University Medical Center, summarizes a joint ASCO/NCI session on this important topic, including the challenges and solutions.
