Results from our 2017 survey
Nearly 250 people responded to our survey, including 113 administrators and medical directors. Seventy-six academic programs, 45 teaching hospitals, and 102 community programs participated in the survey.
Here's what respondents told us they were most interested in learning more about, on a "GPA" scale of one to four.
Measuring service line performance a common challenge
By far, the most popular topic in our survey was oncology dashboards. Respondents are interested in having an actionable dashboard, streamlining data collection, and using data to inform performance improvement.
Measuring service line performance emerged as a persistent challenge for cancer programs across the country.
Oncology referral strategy and cancer patient consumerism also rank high
Oncology referral strategy also garnered a lot of interest. Respondents were specifically interested in new strategies to improve care coordination with referring physicians and best practices for analyzing local referral patterns and outmigration.
In addition, we saw increased interest in cancer patient consumerism—mainly around how to identify patient priorities and market cancer program services directly to patients.
How do these results impact our research agenda for 2018?
Due to considerable interest in both oncology dashboards and oncology referral strategy, our team will be researching these topics this fall.
We will also give a presentation on the State of the Union at our 2018 National Meeting. This presentation typically provides updates on new programs, innovations, and policy changes impacting health care.
Finally, we plan to cover infusion center business strategy, including the impact of targeted therapies, oral chemo, and home infusion on infusion center volumes and revenue. We'll also talk about how you need to adapt your strategy given changing regulations, such as the proposed changes to 340B and private payers' site of care policies.