William Pirl, Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“If there were an evidence-based model of supportive care that increases access, improves outcomes, increases patient and provider satisfaction, eliminates disparities in care, and is financially sustainable, wouldn’t you expect every cancer center to be using it? The model exists, the Collaborative Care Model developed at University of Washington, but few cancer centers have embraced it.
Why?
I think there are two main reasons. The first is that while the Collaborative Care Model is well-known in primary care and psychiatry, it is relatively unknown in oncology. There are over 100 randomized controlled trials demonstrating its benefits, at least six specifically in oncology. The Association of Cancer Care Centers is working to increase the awareness of the Collaborative Care Model in oncology, including developing resources on their website and sponsoring a series of webinars in partnership with the American Psychosocial Oncology Society and the Association of Oncology Social Work. The first webinar is on February 26 and you can register through the link at the end of this posting.
The second is that the Collaborative Care Model is a system of care, which makes implementation more involved. Although you can read many papers about it, including implementation science and lessons learned papers, that probably isn’t enough to equip you to do it yourself. Research on its implementation has shown that support from a team that has done it before leads to greater success. That has certainly been my experience in implementing this model at two of my previous institutions (Thank you, Jesse Fann and team).
As we are about to start the planning process for launching two pilots at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, I thought of another way to help cancer centers to implement the Collaborative Care Model- creating a real-world step-by-step guide of everything that goes into designing, preparing for, and launching a pilot. So, I will be writing about our process from start to finish in real time as we plan and launch our pilots, giving you a behind the scenes, step-by-step account.
At the end of the process, I hope these postings can serve as a detailed guide of what needs to go into planning and launching a pilot of the Collaborative Care Model at a cancer center. In the meantime, you can come along with us on this adventure as we go through it.”
More posts featuring William Pirl.