Improving care quality for patients with soft tissue and bone sarcoma by establishing a national virtual tumor board and electronic consultation platform.

Authors

Minggui Pan

Minggui Pan

Kaiser Permanente, Santa Clara, CA

Minggui Pan, Andrew Fang, Maihgan Kavanagh, Brian Kim, Jason D Lee, Craig McCormick, Lee Jae Morse, Subir Nag, Grant Nybbaken, Peter Peng, Corey M. Schwartz, Joseph Song, Denah Renee Taggart, Jeanette Cu Yu

Organizations

Kaiser Permanente, Santa Clara, CA, Kaiser Permanente, South San Francisco, CA, Kaiser Permanente, Oakland, CA, Kaiser Permanente, Vallejo, CA, The Permanente Med Grp Inc, Santa Clara, CA, The Permanente Medcl Grp, Orinda, CA

Research Funding

No funding sources reported

Background: Bone and soft tissue sarcomas are relatively uncommon and their management is extremely complex requiring coordinated multidisciplinary expertise for optimal care. Because Kaiser Permanente operates across many geographic regions in the country, in-person tumor board is not practical. Methods: The Kaiser Permanente Northern California medical oncology team has developed a system-based virtual tumor board (VTB) and electronic consultation (EC) platform comprised of experts from several key disciplines including musculoskeletal/surgical oncology, musculoskeletal radiology, pathology, radiation oncology, brachytherapy, medical adult and pediatric oncology. The VTB and EC cases are physician referral-based. The VTB occurs once every two weeks via video conferencing reviewing imaging studies and pathology while EC is available for more urgent cases whenever requested. This platform is available to Kaiser Permanente physicians in Northern and Southern California and other states including Hawaii, Mid-Atlantic, Northwest, Colorado, and Georgia. We conducted a survey targeting referring physicians to assess the value of this service platform in improving sarcoma care. Results: From March 2013 to October 2015, approximately 500 cases have been referred to the VTB and EC. Approximately 2/3 of the cases were referred to the VTB and 1/3 to the EC. The cases include a vast spectrum of bone and soft tissue sarcoma cases that were either newly diagnosed or at the time of relapse or progression. The physician survey on the quality and utilization of this sarcoma platform provided very positive feedback, with 100% responses stating that VTB and EC improved patient care and their confidence in managing patients with sarcoma, 90% stating VTB and EC changed their management to a certain extent. Approximately 90% responders rated VTB and EC very to extremely helpful. Conclusions: We conclude that a system-based VTB and EC can provide an excellent platform for improving quality of care and physician confidence in managing patients with bone and soft tissue sarcoma in an integrated healthcare system.

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Abstract Details

Meeting

2016 ASCO Quality Care Symposium

Session Type

Poster Session

Session Title

Poster Session B: Science of Quality

Track

Cost, Value, and Policy in Quality,Practice of Quality,Science of Quality

Sub Track

Quality Improvement

Citation

J Clin Oncol 34, 2016 (suppl 7S; abstr 211)

DOI

10.1200/jco.2016.34.7_suppl.211

Abstract #

211

Poster Bd #

E7

Abstract Disclosures

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