More from ACCC 45th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit

The crowds may have left, but last week’s ACCC 45^th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit held March 20-22, in Washington, D.C., leaves lingering food for thought regarding how cancer programs and practices can adapt and grow by addressing today’s (and tomorrow’s) most challenging healthcare delivery issues. Over three days, sessions explored how our healthcare and our cancer care delivery system has evolved to its current state, and how the actions we take today can help reform a system under continual stress. Below are some of the highlights. To learn more, click on the links for further details:

• Capitol Hill Day 2019: ACCC members brought their expertise to the halls of Congress by sharing with lawmakers their perspectives on recent legislative efforts and the effects of federal policy on cancer programs and practices in their home communities. In more than 65 meetings with the offices of U.S. representatives and senators, ACCC members demonstrated that the voices of professionals on the front lines of cancer care are crucial to shaping the direction of future legislation.
• Surgical Oncology Pre-conference: Speakers at this day-long event explored the common challenges to implementing a surgical oncology program in a community cancer center, the various business strategies these programs can adopt, and how to champion business best practices.
• Radiation Oncology Pre-conference: Various speakers emphasized that while change is central to the practice of medicine, it is never welcome in the business of medicine. Nevertheless, change is looming, and radiation oncology programs, whether freestanding or hospital-based, need to prepare for the alternative payment models on the horizon—such as bundled payments. Speakers addressed how attendees can help their program or practice prepare for the change and how the changes may affect their bottom lines.
• Featured Speaker: Joe Flower, healthcare futurist: Joe Flower opened the meeting not by projecting a Jetsons-inspired vision of healthcare powered by AI and advanced robotics, but with the daunting facts and figures that characterize today’s healthcare environment. After a compelling examination of the state of patient care and the costs that care entails, Flower invited attendees to envision how we can discard what is broken in healthcare—and retain what works—to the benefit of the health and well-being of our patients.
• Featured Speaker: The Intersection of Art and Medicine: Joanie Mayer Hope, MD, is a gynecologic oncologist and a lead singer for N.E.D., an indie rock band composed of six musically gifted gynecologic oncologists who travel the nation, empowering women with ovarian cancer through messages of camaraderie and perseverance. The members of N.E.D. (short for “no evidence of disease”) have not only inspired the 44,000 people who have attended their 71 live concerts, but they have also raised $1.5 million for ovarian cancer awareness and research. At the end of her talk, Dr. Mayer Hope debuted her “Any Mountain” project. A hip-hop song, video, and app, “Any Mountain” tells the story of patients’ struggle and survival and raises awareness about the potential of genetic testing to detect ovarian cancer at an early stage.
• The Digital Health Revolution: As chief intelligence officer of Beth Israel Deaconess System and chairman of the New England Healthcare Exchange Network, John Halamka, MD, is shaping the use of digitized information to improve healthcare delivery. In his address to meeting attendees, Dr. Halamka shared stories of how advanced and developing countries are using digital technologies—in ways that are both wise and unwise—to improve the health of their citizens. Dr. Halamka stressed that countries around the world have aging populations, low birth rates, unsustainable healthcare costs, and clinician shortages. In this “perfect storm,” said Dr. Halamka, digital technologies can leverage scarce resources to provide more care to more people.
• The Intersection of Digital Health, Technology, and Value: A multi-stakeholder panel explored the ramifications of various new technologies on cancer care. They emphasized that today’s reactive approach to healthcare must be replaced by proactive care, where patient data is collected and harvested to create personalized preventive care. This approach will interrupt the traditionally linear nature of cancer care and replace it with a more nuanced approach enabled by data-informed personalized treatment protocols.

With the #AMCCBS's robust meeting schedule that offered four afternoon session tracks on Thursday and Deep Dive Workshops on Friday afternoon, there’s still more to share. Stay tuned for upcoming ACCCBuzz blogs with takeaways from the following sessions:

• Leveraging Technology to Establish a Standardized Nurse Navigation Program, and Measure Value and Impact, presented by Crystal Dugger, RN, BSN, MBA,
  Assistant Vice President, Clinical Operations, TriStar Centennial Medical Center, Sarah Cannon Cancer Center.
• Care Connect: Making a Case for Collaboration Between Oncology and Primary Care, presented by Kelly Filcher, MSN, RN, OCN, Director, Clinical Operations for Fox Chase Cancer Center Partners, Fox Chase Cancer Center.
• Early Integration of Pathology into the Cancer Service Line—highlights from a panel discussion.

Access more highlights, videos, and our meeting photo album here.

Thank you to everyone who attended the ACCC 45th Annual Meeting & Cancer Center Business Summit and made #AMCCBS one of our most successful events ever! #cancer https://t.co/X53dDZo2OP pic.twitter.com/wwSVUvjuPh

— ACCC (@ACCCBuzz) April 12, 2019