Author: Mirjana Phillips

The Project ECHO® eight-part webinar series is powered by OncoLens, designed and managed by the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC), accredited by Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Barry M. Manuel Continuing Medical Education Office (BU_CME), and made possible by a grant from Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).

Atlanta, GA: OncoLens–an innovator in multidisciplinary cancer care, and provider of a comprehensive, integrated treatment planning platform, was engaged by ACCC to power and disseminate via the OncoLens network, the Project ECHO® eight-part webinar series. The series kicked off with a Cardiology session on September 20, 2022, that exceeded attendance goals by 58%. A Gastroenterology session followed on October 18, 2022, with over 50% of the participants from the first session returning. Health care providers can register, at no charge, for the five remaining sessions—Rheumatology, Neurology, Hepatology, Dermatology, and Pulmonology.

Each session is designed to cover a different topic with Key Opinion Leaders discussing irAE monitoring and management strategies for approved cancer immunotherapies as well as for immunotherapies that have newly expanded indications for cancer treatment. During the session, health care participants,
from multiple disciplines, are welcome to submit unidentified clinical cases and will receive guidance from expert faculty. At the end of each session, participants will be able to:

• Apply evidence-based practices for the monitoring and management of irAE in patients receiving cancer immunotherapies
• Improve coordination and communication with non-oncology specialists and with patients/caregivers to manage irAE in patients receiving cancer immunotherapies
• Review strategies for providing equitable care for underserved patients receiving cancer immunotherapies

“We are proud to support the Project ECHO® webinar series designed by ACCC and BU_CME,” said Anju Mathew, Chief Executive Officer of OncoLens. “This is another example of how partnerships across global nonprofits, leading medical education institutions, and innovators in multidisciplinary cancer treatment address health and community issues by providing care strategy education.”

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About the Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC)

The Association of Community Cancer Centers (ACCC) is the leading education and advocacy organization for the cancer care community. Founded in 1974, ACCC is a powerful network of 30,000 multidisciplinary practitioners from 1,700 hospitals and practices nationwide. As advances in cancer screening and diagnosis, treatment options, and care delivery models continue to evolve – so has ACCC – adapting its resources to meet the changing needs of the entire oncology care team. For more information, visit accc-cancer.org.

Follow us on social media; read our blog, ACCCBuzz; tune in to our CANCER BUZZ podcast; and view our CANCER BUZZ TV channel.

About Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, Barry M. Manuel Continuing Medical Education Office

Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine Continuing Medical Education designs, implements, and assesses evidence-based education for the healthcare team to advance their skills/strategies and performance, optimally leading to improved patient outcomes. We deliver activities in a wide variety of educational formats at the local, regional, and national level.

About Project ECHO®

Founded in 2003, Project ECHO® is a global nonprofit that empowers practitioners and professionals in rural and underserved areas to reduce disparities and improve the well-being of people in the communities where they live. ECHO’s free, virtual mentoring model addresses some of the world’s greatest challenges in health care, education and more, with a mission to touch 1 billion lives by 2025.

About OncoLens

OncoLens is the single platform that enables multidisciplinary cancer care across the continuum. Through a streamlined, secure HIPAA-compliant infrastructure, OncoLens drives intra-enterprise, community, network, and affiliate participation in multidisciplinary care planning, tracking, and delivery. The OncoLens platform allows providers to aggregate, create and track the comprehensive patient journey. This includes maximized clinical trial participation, an extended referral stream, and the creation of a center of excellence that can be leveraged to support patient care and provider education. More than 200 cancer centers and associations across the U.S and internationally rely on OncoLens to support their cancer programs and the care delivered.

Contact

OncoLens, info@oncolens.com

As we observe Sarcoma Awareness Month, MIB Agents, a global leader in osteosarcoma education and collaboration, leverages OncoLens to support all aspects of their TURBO program. The OncoLens multidisciplinary cancer care platform powers patient treatment discussions, care planning, and data collection.

Atlanta, GA (Jul 19, 2022): MIB Agents has engaged OncoLens to support the organization’s Tumor Review Board for Osteosarcoma (TURBO) program. This virtual tumor board brings together a multidisciplinary team of global osteosarcoma experts to review patient cases, share experiences, and build knowledge across the sarcoma community. OncoLens’ multidisciplinary care platform  captures, shares, and tracks cases immediately and over time, providing vital data to enhance care.

Osteosarcoma is an aggressive, malignant primary bone cancer. It is the most prevalent bone cancer in the United States, with between 800-1,000 new patients diagnosed each year. Osteosarcoma is also the most prevalent bone cancer impacting children and young adults.

TURBO brings together great minds in osteosarcoma research and care across geographies and institutions facilitating collaboration,” said Katie Janeway, MD, a pediatric oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

TURBO currently conducts six tumor boards annually, during which key opinion leaders, experts, and clinicians supporting osteosarcoma patients come together to discuss patient cases. In addition to supporting care planning, the program creates a network of expertise and insight that helps accelerate education, research focus areas, and grant opportunities. After a successful start in the US, MIB Agents will be expanding participation and increasing frequency to twelve times per year to include global osteosarcoma experts.

“For the TURBO program and global osteosarcoma community, OncoLens is helping streamline multidisciplinary clinical insights, education and access, more effectively and efficiently than ever before,” said Matteo Trucco, MD, a pediatric oncologist from Cleveland Clinic and TURBO moderator. “The collaboration that we can achieve on a global scale will help physicians from across all disciplines more efficiently review cases, share available clinical trials and promote collaboration.”

“We are proud to support the work of MIB Agents and the TURBO program,” said Anju Mathew, chief executive officer for OncoLens. “This work is another example of how a multidisciplinary cancer care platform can drive connection, collaboration, and knowledge sharing for some of the world’s most complex and difficult-to-treat cancers. We are thrilled to partner with MIB Agents and support their efforts in driving osteosarcoma research, treatment, and education.”

About MIB Agents

Founded in 2012, MIB Agents is a leading pediatric osteosarcoma nonprofit dedicated to making it better for our community of patients, caregivers, doctors, and researchers through programs, education, and research.

About OncoLens

OncoLens is the single platform that enables multidisciplinary cancer care across the continuum. Through a streamlined, secure HIPAA-compliant infrastructure, OncoLens drives intra-enterprise, community, network, and affiliate participation in multidisciplinary care planning, tracking, and delivery. Using OncoLens, cancer providers can capture, disseminate, and track quality, best practices, and protocols. And with direct EMR and cancer registry integration, data and abstraction are automated and accelerated. The OncoLens platform allows providers to aggregate, create and track the comprehensive patient journey across the continuum. This includes maximized clinical trial participation, an extended referral stream, and the creation of a center of excellence that can be leveraged to support patient care and provider education. With OncoLens, providers can realize and expand their reputation to increase patient-driven referrals, decrease patient leakage and enhance their brand within the oncology community. More than 200 cancer centers and associations across the U.S and internationally rely on OncoLens to support their cancer programs and the care delivered.

In honor of World Cancer Day, The Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation is celebrating the success of their virtualized tumor board program enabled through the OncoLens platform

Atlanta, GA: In honor of World Cancer Day on February 4th, The Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation (DTRF) is celebrating the success of The DTRF Virtual Tumor Board program in closing care gaps and patient access barriers for rare tumors. The DTRF Virtual Tumor Board is an international, virtual meeting where physicians discuss de-identified, challenging desmoid tumor patient cases to develop a path forward for treatment. Since the program’s launch in 2017, these meetings have helped 55 patients and engaged clinicians from around the globe. As recognition of the program’s success has grown across the community, oncologists are looking to replicate the approach with other rare cancer types.

The DTRF was founded in 2005 to fund research toward a cure for desmoid tumors and improve the lives of patients through education, awareness, and support. Desmoid tumors are rare tumors of soft tissues in the body, can be locally invasive, and often have an unpredictable clinical course. The DTRF receives inquiries from healthcare professionals, patients, and family members for advice on treatment and management strategies for desmoid tumors. As is the case with many rare tumors, medical expertise and research programs for desmoid tumors are limited and often siloed across academic research facilities. To address gaps in access and improve shared knowledge, The DTRF runs The DTRF Virtual Tumor Board program quarterly during which three to four patient cases are discussed with physicians from multidisciplinary backgrounds. Attendance is global, and the sessions provide an invaluable opportunity to disseminate evidence-based consensus guidelines and education.

“Through The DTRF Virtual Tumor Board program, we created a pathway for connecting desmoid tumor experts, specialists, and patients around the globe. We often think of care gaps at the individual patient level, and what we know through our work at The DTRF is that gaps and barriers to access are amplified when it comes to rare cancer types. Being able to centralize, standardize, and facilitate the knowledge sharing that happens during these meetings is emerging as a best practice in rare tumor treatment and oncology more generally,” said Lynne Hernandez, director of special events and operations for The DTRF.

With more than 55 patient cases discussed across providers representing countries including the U.S., Italy, Brazil, the U.K., Norway, Mexico, Germany, and Australia, The DTRF Virtual Tumor Board serves as a successful model that can be replicated for other cancer types. In addition to the live sessions, each meeting is recorded. Efforts are underway to curate this data and make it available through a knowledge base that can be accessed asynchronously. These data include treatment recommendations, outcome summaries, and follow-ups to ensure a complete view of the patient journey and outcomes.

“In general, rare tumors often face the challenge of limited clinical trial and research opportunities, which hinders the development of well-established management strategies. The DTRF Virtual Tumor Boards provide a unique and cost-effective way to reach more people and provide expert advice in a more formal scientific forum,” said Aaron Weiss, DO, director, medical advisory board for The DTRF and division chief, pediatric hematology-oncology for Maine Medical Center. “Using the multidisciplinary platform OncoLens, we connect clinicians and lower access-to-care gaps at a global scale. And the data that we are collecting will help inform future research and guidelines.”

The DTRF Virtual Tumor Board program leverages the OncoLens Multidisciplinary Cancer Care Continuum platform to facilitate the virtualized meetings. The fully HIPAA-compliant solution enables patient data sharing, treatment discussions, and documentation for each patient case. Access is web-based, no local software needs to be installed, and the workflow is purpose-built for oncology and customized to cancer type.

“It has been an honor to work with The DTRF and to serve as the multidisciplinary care continuum backbone for this program,” said Anju Mathew, chief executive officer for OncoLens. “This project demonstrates the power of collaboration at an international level to lower barriers to care and address the challenges inherent to rare tumors. We look forward to our continued work with The DTRF and support for their mission.”

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About The DTRF

The mission of The Desmoid Tumor Research Foundation (DTRF) is to aggressively fund research to accelerate the development of improved therapies, and ultimately find a cure for desmoid tumors. The Foundation collaborates with dedicated researchers and clinicians worldwide to improve the lives of patients through education, awareness and support. The DTRF was founded in 2005 by Jeanne Whiting and Marlene Portnoy, “two women working from their kitchen tables”, who over the years have transformed an entire rare disease community and research agenda.

About OncoLens

OncoLens is the single platform that enables multidisciplinary cancer care across the continuum. Through a streamlined, secure HIPAA-compliant infrastructure, OncoLens drives intra-enterprise, community, network, and affiliate participation in multidisciplinary care planning, tracking, and delivery. Using OncoLens, cancer providers can capture, disseminate, and track quality, best practices, and protocols. And with direct EMR and cancer registry integration, data and abstraction are automated and accelerated. The OncoLens platform allows providers to aggregate, create and track the comprehensive patient journey to optimize multidisciplinary care across the continuum. This includes maximized clinical trial participation, an extended referral stream, and the creation of a center of excellence that can be leveraged to support patient care and provider education. With OncoLens, providers can realize and expand their reputation to increase patient-driven referrals, decrease patient leakage and enhance their brand within the oncology community. More than 9,000 cancer providers and 36,500 cancer patients across the U.S. rely on OncoLens to support their cancer programs and the care delivered.

Contact

Allison Kavanagh 
OncoLens
404 483 3713
allisonkavanagh@oncolens.com

The cancer planning solution serves as an essential component to monitoring concordance with evidence-based guidelines and yearly quality improvement initiatives.

Atlanta, GA (Jan 20, 2022):

The Commission on Cancer (CoC) accredits approximately 1,500 cancer centers nationwide. Continuous quality improvement activities are critical to maintaining this accreditation and driving advancements in cancer care quality. Within this landscape, OncoLens has emerged as an essential platform for cross-discipline data sharing and analyses that lead to better care decisions, patient outcomes, and CoC quality improvement compliance.

As part of the CoC accreditation process, cancer programs must perform quality improvement initiatives aimed at “problem resolution, outcomes improvement, and assurances of patient safety (Commission on Cancer, 2020).” Cancer programs are required to foster a collaborative culture that empowers participants to analyze and implement improvements to care quality. This includes [Quality Standard 7.2] monitoring concordance with evidence-based guidelines and [Quality Standard 7.3] executing at least one yearly cancer-specific quality improvement initiative.

CoC accreditation is designed to encourage hospitals, treatment centers, and other facilities to improve the quality of care across the entire cancer continuum, including prevention, survivorship, and end-of-life care. While 2020 Standard revisions lowered the number of cases reviewed and quality studies performed to meet quality improvement requirements, ensuring compliance and maintaining collaboration remain challenging. Quality improvement demands multidisciplinary inputs and a centralized hub for data sharing, information, and analysis. With disjointed technology stacks, disparate data, and few options to streamline communications, cancer programs struggle to drive the multidisciplinary collaboration that underpins the CoC’s standards.

OncoLens, a holistic platform supporting the entire cancer patient journey, is helping cancer centers drive collaborative engagement and unlock data to support quality standards. Recent projects have improved the identification of advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) patients eligible for frontline-immune checkpoint inhibition therapy using biomarker test results. This included baselining current practices and identifying barriers leading to variation within a facility.

“Cancer programs are using OncoLens to perform in-depth analyses that determine if diagnosis and initial treatment are concordant with evidence-based national treatment guidelines. In addition, the collaborative capabilities native to the platform are facilitating quality improvement initiatives by aggregating data, supporting problem statement development, and driving the monitoring and measurement of quality improvement program activities,” said Anju Mathew, OncoLens chief executive officer.

Planned activities across 2022 will continue to support cancer centers already live on the OncoLens platform, deliver non-OncoLens programs the opportunity to participate in sponsored quality improvement initiatives, and provide insights to the CoC on additional measures and benchmarks indicative of multidisciplinary care quality and improved patient outcomes.

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This coming year, the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Commission on Cancer (CoC) will observe its 100th Anniversary. The yearlong campaign will celebrate this important milestone, honor the dedication and leadership of those who have helped to build and shape the CoC, and identify new opportunities to improve the care of the patient with cancer.

“Over the past century, the organizations and individuals represented in the CoC have consistently and tirelessly advanced the quality and standards of cancer care,” said CoC Chair Timothy Mullett, MD, FACS. “As a result, today there are more than 1,500 CoC-accredited cancer programs in the United States and Puerto Rico, treating more than 70 percent of patients with cancer in this country.”

Established by the ACS in 1922, the CoC is a consortium of professional organizations, dedicated to improving survival and quality of life for cancer patients through standard-setting, prevention, research, education, and the monitoring of comprehensive quality care. CoC membership is composed of more than 100 individuals who either are surgeons representing the ACS or representatives from the 60 national professional organizations affiliated with the CoC.

“Since 1922, the CoC has been setting standards and accrediting cancer programs to ensure the provision of high-quality cancer care,” said ACS Cancer Programs Medical Director Heidi Nelson, MD, FACS. “While we celebrate the CoC’s proud 100-year history of excellence in the coming year, we also will continue to focus on new, innovative, evidence-based approaches for developing compassionate, standardized care that is coordinated to treat the whole patient.”

Throughout the year, the CoC will feature special 100th Anniversary content in the Cancer Programs News weekly newsletter, on ACS Cancer Programs social media channels, and on the new 100th Anniversary website. Anniversary coverage will include video interviews with past and present CoC leadership, historical articles and photos, profiles of long-running accredited programs and member organizations, reviews of medical journal articles that highlight the importance of National Cancer Database data, and bylined articles on topics of interest to the cancer care community. In addition, the January 2022 issue of the Bulletin of the American College of Surgeons will be dedicated to the CoC’s 100th Anniversary.