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)
Joseph V. Simone, MD, of the Simone Consulting Company, reflects on the prospects for the future of safety and quality.
Allison Kurian, MD, of Stanford University School of Medicine, discusses pressing questions about the clinical utility and value of extended genomic testing and other forms of precision medicine.
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)
Lee N. Newcomer, MD, of the UnitedHealth Group, gives his perspective on how to assess quality in the age of precision medicine.
Patricia A. Ganz, MD, of the University of California at Los Angeles, the 2016 winner of the Joseph V. Simone Award, summarizes her “Lecture for Excellence in Quality and Safety in the Care of Patients With Cancer.”
