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Oncology Clinical Pathways Congress took a decidedly more personal turn in Session 3 with “The Focus of Clinical Pathways: The Patient.” First to present in the final session of the first day was Deborah Collyar, President of Patient Advocates In Research and a cancer survivor, with “Patient Perspective in Cancer Care for Pathways and Care Coordination.”
Collyar presented a simple yet profound statement early in her presentation in regard to those diagnosed with cancer: “Patients are PEOPLE.” Patients are not numbers, nor are they subjects. They are individuals, and they are individuals who have been dropped into an entirely new plane of existence with no roadmap, dictionary, or training on how to live in their new reality.
People need useful and better treatment and care. Issues start with diagnosis (or misdiagnosis) and continue with confusion regarding each step in the care process, better explanations of treatment options, and costs, among others.
As an example, Collyar asked the assembly to imagine they’d just been diagnosed with a serious cancer. Treatment options included using drugs whose names they’d never heard before, or a clinical trial using a new form of immunotherapy whose name they’d also never heard before, and asked to choose which treatment pathway they’d like.
What is missing for patients, Collyar asked. The answer: “context.”