In this interview from our recent Institute for Value-Based Medicine® event, Kristine Slam, MD, FACP, Central Ohio Surgical Associates, discusses the positive impact that Choosing Wisely and enhanced recovery after surgery, or EROS, protocols have had on patients receiving treatment for breast cancer.
Kristine Slam, MD, FACP, Central Ohio Surgical Associates, spoke at our recent Institute for Value-Based Medicine® event, held in partnership with the Zangmeister Cancer Center of Columbus, Ohio, on September 14. Here she discusses the positive impact that Choosing Wisely and enhanced recovery after surgery (EROS) protocols have had on patients receiving treatment for breast cancer.
Transcript
What measurable benefits have been observed from the shift to value-based care for breast cancer?
Two of the things that come most to my mind are the Choosing Wisely campaign and EROS protocols.
Choosing Wisely actually started back in 2012, and it was a bunch of societies coming together for mostly patient but also physician education about practices that have been routine for years that actually don't provide that much value to the patient. In the breast cancer world, this actually started by us surgeons not doing unnecessary axillary dissections [or] ordering unnecessary tumor markers. Now it has evolved into, again, ongoing education about not doing routine MRIs, not routinely doing sentinel lymph node biopsies in elderly or low-risk patients, not routinely reexcising lumpectomy close margins. So Choosing Wisely has, again, eliminated both short-term and long-term side effects for patients and financial toxicity.
The second thing that is helpful is something called EROS protocols, and these are specific to surgery. What the EROS protocols are designed for is limiting length of time in the hospital, limiting side effects, and it's through standardization of surgical practices. A lot of this involves preoperative education of patients, but it also is, again, very evidence based about things that work perioperatively to limit patient problems.
Real-World Data Show Sotorasib Effective for NSCLC With KRAS Mutation
May 18th 2024Data from real-world and clinical-trial settings on frontline monotherapy treatment with the KRAS inhibitor sotorasib both show similar progression-free survivals and a high likelihood that the treatment’s efficacy is not affected with dose reduction.
Read More
Health Equity and Access Weekly Roundup: May 18, 2024
May 18th 2024The US Senate hosted a panel addressing physician and health care shortages and efforts to increase minority representation in the medical field. An expert discussed initiatives to prevent senior homelessness. Advocates called for the repeal of the Comstock Act. Regulatory reforms are called for to improve rural cancer patients' access to pharmacies. Research reveals the impact of denials on patient access to immunology treatments.
Read More
Frameworks for Advancing Health Equity: Urban Health Outreach
May 9th 2024In the series debut episode of "Frameworks for Advancing Health Equity," Mary Sligh, CRNP, and Chelsea Chappars, of Allegheny Health Network, explain how the Urban Health Outreach program aims to improve health equity for individuals experiencing homelessness.
Listen
Study Highlights Significant Increases in Utilization, Spending on DMD Drugs in Medicaid
May 17th 2024The findings add to recent research on the growing utilization, expenditure, and prices of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) therapies in the current landscape, an area health care policy could potentially address.
Read More