Douglas Flora, Executive Medical Director of Yung Family Cancer Center at St. Elizabeth Healthcare, President-Elect of the Association of Cancer Care Centers, and Editor in Chief of AI in Precision Oncology, shared a post on LinkedIn:
” ‘Mental health is the only specialty that doesn’t routinely examine its organ of interest.’
Thanks to all of you that attended yesterday’s inaugural Shift: Innovations in Mental Health Virtual Summit.
I’ve spent 25 years in oncology. I’ve ordered thousands of scans and biopsies. I’ve never once sent a patient to the OR without imaging the tumor first. Yet we have been treating cancer-related depression, anxiety, and PTSD by asking people how they’ve been feeling for two weeks. No brain data. No imaging. No precision.
Our keynote speaker, Kyle Bonesteel put it plainly: biology is the music. Psychology is the lyrics. Precision medicine that ignores one of them isn’t precision – it’s a half-finished song.
Our Chair and Inspirer-in-Chief, Jennifer Bires, LCSW, reminded us there only one hour of therapy per week. There are 167 hours of everything else. Fear in the car on the way to chemo. 3am Google spirals. Scan results, alone, at midnight. That’s where our patients actually live – and where we have largely left them unattended.
- 75% of cancer patients experience clinically significant distress.
- 40% meet criteria for a diagnosable psychiatric condition.
- 22-30% of survivors meet full PTSD criteria.
And one more thing worth carrying out of yesterday’s conversation:
Precision care that does not reach the underserved is not precision. It is privilege.
Karen Fecenko-Tacka , Andrea Flora, Jennifer Bires, and Kyle Bonesteel built the room. 1,200 people filled it – from Laramie, Wyoming to Brazil and Qatar. Thanks so much to all of our speakers and sponsors – we left the summit inspired and determined to try and help wherever we can.
‘What we give doesn’t always return, but what we give is always what we are.’
Has your cancer center integrated real mental health care as a clinical pillar – or is it still a referral you make when things get bad enough?”
Other Articles Featuring Douglas Flora On OncoDaily.