Reading List and Summaries

Resources for Cancer Center Planning and Oncology Consulting

Dedicated to comprehensive oncology program and business planning for cancer services growth and cancer center development, The Oncology Group maintains this area of the website as a repository for related topics of interest. Whether it's a change that could affect our industry or just an opportunity to pass along pertinent information, you'll find it here. To view more articles, visit the Reading Room Archives page.

If you want more information about how our team of expert consultants can help your facility with the full spectrum of cancer program strategic planning, visit our oncology consulting solutions and cancer center planning services page.

Unified Approach to Sharing All Images and Records to Streamline Continuity of Care

Continuity of care, especially for patients that are transferred between organizations, suffers from the lack of any organized, efficient methodology of collecting and forwarding the required records and diagnostic images required for treatment. Healthcare participants have been struggling with these problems for many years, and...
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Medical Oncology/Hospital Alignment Must Focus On Operational Efficiency Before The Deal Is Finalized

Here to now, many cancer programs typically contributed to a hospital’s excess of revenues after expenses (fully allocated) or “profit”. With “value” as the new normal, cancer program strategies will have to look beyond profit as key measures of success. Programs will require diversified strategies that address...
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The Challenges of Change

Over the past 30 years, those of us with a career in cancer care have seen dramatic changes. Cancer care has moved from the broad to the targeted, from the simple to the complex and from sequential to interdisciplinary. Cancer patients are now seeing better outcomes and experiencing enhanced levels of...
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Focus Groups: Part Two

How patients influence patient-centered design

When planning a new cancer center, it is critical to hire an experienced architecture and design team with cancer center expertise and to determine what cancer patients who may frequent the center would like to see included. Talking to patients is one of the most important strategies...
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The Fiscal Cliff, Health Care Impacts and the Need for Operational Efficiency

Once again, the fiscal environment for health care is changing! Congress and the President just passed legislation to avoid the “fiscal cliff” that included essential items that impact health care. One of the most critical stops the 26.5% reimbursement cuts for physicians seeing Medicare patients...
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Focus Groups: Part One

Facts and figures vs. feelings and feedback: what you can learn from focus groups

Customer—and potential customer—feedback is worth its weight in gold. Once you’ve gathered and evaluated adeptly acquired customer insights you can interpret them to shape strategy, policies and operations that deliver the best service and value...
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Breast Center Accreditation & Certification Comes of Age

Part Three - BICOE and EUSOMA

In the final installment of the Breast Center Accreditation & Certification Comes of Age series, we will discuss Breast Imaging Center of Excellence (BICOE) designation, conferred by the American College of Radiology (ACR) and the European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (EUSOMA) certification process...
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Phase IV Studies Ethics & Scientific Issues IOM Report Released

Post-marketing (or Phase IV) studies are routinely cited as the fastest growing drug research phase. Phase IV studies are initiated after the FDA has approved a product for the open market. In late August 2012, the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) published an article¹ commenting on the May 2012 Institute of Medicine report entitled “Ethical and Scientific Issues in Studying the Safety of Approved Drugs.” ² In the wake of several high-profile controversies surrounding post-approved drugs ...
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Breast Center Accreditation

Part Two – NQMBC uses Process Measures

While the National Accreditation program for Breast Centers (NAPBC) focuses on structure and program elements (see Part I of this article), the National Quality Measures for Breast Centers ™ (NQMBC) emphasizes processes, performance, specific metrics, patient satisfaction across diagnostics and multiple treatment disciplines, and even outcomes –Five Year Stage Specific Survival Rate©. NQMBC identifies quality care measures, provides immediate access to...
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Breast Center Accreditation & Certification Comes of Age

Part One

This year, the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers (NAPBC) begins re-evaluating breast centers originally surveyed when the program began formal accreditation in late 2008. Clearly, quality measures for breast cancer care are embraced by cancer centers, community hospitals and academic medical centers, as well as independent practitioners, as is evident from the strong participation figures...
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