Ethan Basch, MD, MSc
The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) 2019 Clinical Research Award was presented to Ethan Basch, MD, MSc, during the ACCC 36th National Oncology Conference held recently in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Basch is the Director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program and Professor of Hematology and Oncology at the University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.
In a news release, the ACCC noted that as a medical oncologist and health services researcher, Dr. Basch has focused on developing methods to bring the patient perspective into cancer clinical research and routine care delivery. For over a decade, his group has developed and implemented patient-reported outcomes tools and worked closely with public and private agencies to effect policy changes based on their findings.
Dr. Basch’s goal is to conduct research that facilitates rigorous inclusion of patient-reported outcomes in product development, drug labels, and routine care for symptom monitoring. It is his hope that bringing the patient voice into clinical research and care delivery processes will lead to safer drug development, improved quality of care, enhanced patient-clinician communication, and better patient experiences with disease and treatment.
Compliance High
In accepting the award, Dr. Basch shared that his research has found that in routine care about 75% of patients are compliant with self-reported outcomes. And in some rural programs, this compliance rate has been as high as 95%. “Integration of patient-reported symptoms into cancer care is feasible and is associated with clinical benefit,” he said. He believes that future efforts should focus on strategies for implementing self-reporting into clinical workflow and electronic health records. ■
