Cancer Clinic Redesign: Opportunities for Resource Optimization

Ambulatory cancer centers face fluctuating patient demand and deploy specialized personnel who have variable availability. This undermines operational stability through misalignment of re-sources to patient needs, resulting in overscheduled clinics, high rebooking rates, budget deficits, and wait times exceeding provincial targets. We describe how deploying a Learning Health System framework led to operational improvements within the entire ambulatory center. Known methods of value stream mapping, operations research and statistical process control were applied to achieve organizational high performance that is data-informed, agile and adaptive. Caseload management by disease site emerged as an essential construct that incorporates disease site teams into adaptive, reliable care units, clinically and operationally. This supported clus-tering interdisciplinary teams around groups of patients with similar attributes, while allowing for quarterly recalibration. Systematic efforts were made in the negotiation required to im-plement changes that impacted physicians, nurses, clerks, and administrators. Feedback mecha-nisms were created with learnings curated and disseminated by a core team. The change aligned financial expenditures to the regional demand for specialized services and smoothed clinical operations across 5 weekdays and 2 centers. The impact was predictable, optimized expenditures, increased efficiencies across human and physical resource deployment and improved disease site collaboration in patient care.

Minimally Invasive Pilonidal Sinus Treatment: A Brief Review

With a prevalence of 26/100,000, pilonidal sinus disease is a frequent natal cleft condition that primarily affects young males. The disease site is often uncomfortable and the disease can result in problems such as abscess formation and recurrent acute or chronic infections. Minimally invasive treatment aims to form a small elliptical wedge of subcutaneous tissue containing all the inflammatory tissue. The sinus and its lateral tracks are removed while keeping the overlying skin intact. Following the notion of “less is more,” novel least invasive treatments such as sinotomy, sinusectomy, trephining, and video-assisted and endoscopic pilonidal sinus surgery have recently been proposed. We look at minimally invasive treatments to explain how research into modern techniques has revealed a low rate of short-term problems.

Gender, Productivity, and Philanthropic Fundraising in Academic Oncology

Background: Philanthropic donations are important funding sources in academic oncology but may be vulnerable to implicit or explicit biases toward women. However, the influence of gender on donations has not been assessed quantitatively. Methods: We queried a large academic cancer center’s development database for donations over 10 years to the sundry funds of medical and radiation oncologists. Types of donations and total amounts for medical oncologists and radiation oncologists hired prior to April 1, 2018 (allowing ≥2 years on faculty prior to query), were obtained. We also obtained publicly available data on physician/academic rank, gender, specialty, disease site, and Hirsch-index (h-index), a metric of productivity. Results: We identified 127 physicians: 64% men and 36% women. Median h-index was higher for men (31; range, 1–100) than women (17; range, 3–77; P=.003). Men were also more likely to have spent more time at the institution (median, 15 years; range, 2–43 years) than women (median, 12.5 years; range, 3–22 years; P=.025). Those receiving donations were significantly more likely to be men (70% vs 30%; P=.034). Men received significantly higher median amounts ($259,474; range, $0–$29,507,784) versus women ($37,485; range, $0–$7,483,726; P=.019). On multivariable analysis, only h-index and senior academic rank were associated with donation receipt, and only h-index with donation amount. Conclusions: We found significant gender disparities in receipt of philanthropic donations on unadjusted analyses. However, on multivariable analyses, only productivity and rank were significantly associated with donations, suggesting gender disparities in productivity and promotions may contribute to these differences.

Understanding the Importance of Capsules in Dry Powder Inhalers

Pulmonary drug delivery is currently the focus of research and development because of its potential to produce maximum therapeutic benefit to patients by directing the drug straight to the lung disease site. Among all the available delivery options, one popular, proven and convenient inhaler device is the capsule-based dry powder inhaler (cDPI) for the treatment of an increasingly diverse range of diseases. cDPIs use a hard capsule that contains a powder formulation which consists of a mixture of a micronized drug and a carrier usually the lactose, known for its good lung tolerance. The capsule is either inserted into the device during manufacturer or by the patient prior to use. After perforating, opening or cut the capsule in the device, patients take a deep and rapid breath to inhale the powder, using air as the vector of drug displacement. The system is simple, relatively cheap and characterized by a lower carbon footprint than that of pressurized metered dose inhalers. This article reviews cDPI technology, focusing particularly on the importance of capsule characteristics and their function as a drug reservoir in cDPIs.

Does the introduction of a formal neutropenic sepsis protocol improve therapeutic radiographer confidence and competence at recognising sepsis within the radiotherapy department?

Aim: The aim of this service review was to review whether implementing a formal training package increased therapeutic radiographer confidence and competence in recognising neutropenic sepsis in radiotherapy patients. In addition, authors also investigated whether the introduction of a weekly National Early Warning Score (NEWS) protocol had been successful in identifying cases of neutropenic sepsis. Material and Methods: Therapeutic radiographer (n = 13) views on the new protocol were collected through an online questionnaire. A review of the clinical observation sheets of patients who received chemo-radiotherapy (n = 49) between 18 April 2019 and 31 October 2019 was undertaken. Information on disease site, NEWS scores, number of patients who had become neutropenic and action taken by therapeutic radiographers was collected. Results: The majority of respondents to the questionnaire found that training benefitted both professionals and patients. Some challenges were highlighted relating to increased workload. For patients receiving regular observations, NEWS scores ranged from 0 to 4. When a patient scored on NEWS, the most common score was 1 across all treatment sites except cervix. Findings: Implementing a neutropenic sepsis protocol appears to be beneficial to therapeutic radiographers as professionals, increasing their confidence in patient assessment and monitoring. Regular observations may help to identify deteriorating patients alongside clinical judgement and symptom reviews.

Radiotherapy contour quality improvement practices among United States radiation oncologists.

249 Background: The objective of this study was to assess contouring-related quality improvement practices employed by radiation oncologists in the United States (US) and to identify individual and organizational factors associated with use. Methods: We conducted a mixed methods study with a sequential explanatory design. A survey was developed with domains assessing individual and organizational demographic characteristics, clinical decision support strategies, and quality assurance and improvement processes. Study invitations were sent to a random 10% sample of practicing US radiation oncologists. After survey completion, physicians were invited to participate in a 30-minute audio-recorded semi-structured interview. Kruskal-Wallis and Wilcoxon rank-sum tests were used to evaluate associations between participant characteristics and survey responses. Interview data were coded using thematic content analysis. Results: The web-based survey response rate was 24% (115/482), and we completed 15 interviews. 72% of survey respondents report that contouring-related questions arise in at least half of cases in routine patient care, and the resources they access first are cooperative group guidelines and contouring atlases (e.g. RTOG/NRG) (75%) followed by consulting another radiation oncologist (60%). The most frequent barriers to optimizing quality of contours and treatment plans are time constraints (58%) and lack of access to disease site specialists (22%). About half (54%) of respondents do not have access to on-site disease site specialists. A majority of survey respondents (75%) believe having access to disease site specialists to review image-based radiation treatment-related questions would be helpful, and 40% indicated it could facilitate adoption of new radiation treatments. Seven interviewees mentioned engaging with out-of-network sub-specialists by phone, text or email. Five interviewees without access to sub-specialists mentioned a formalized system for consultation could be helpful. While almost all (97%) respondents report having a formal process for peer review, only 44% have contour-specific peer review. Academic centers/university setting and higher number of colleagues are factors associated with increased access to contour-specific peer review (p = 0.02 and p = 0.001). Clinical pathway use was reported by 18% of survey respondents, and interviews revealed concerns related to physician autonomy (i.e. ability to individualize treatment recommendations). Conclusions: This study identifies two potential opportunities to improve the radiation treatment quality from the physician’s perspective– improved access to disease site specialists and contour-specific peer review. Research is needed to test the acceptability and effectiveness of these strategies. Time and resource constraints must be considered when designing quality improvement efforts.

Advances in Biomimetic Nanoparticles for Targeted Cancer Therapy and Diagnosis

Biomimetic nanoparticles have recently emerged as a novel drug delivery platform to improve drug biocompatibility and specificity at the desired disease site, especially the tumour microenvironment. Conventional nanoparticles often encounter rapid clearance by the immune system and have poor drug-targeting effects. The rapid development of nanotechnology provides an opportunity to integrate different types of biomaterials onto the surface of nanoparticles, which enables them to mimic the natural biological features and functions of the cells. This mimicry strategy favours the escape of biomimetic nanoparticles from clearance by the immune system and reduces potential toxic side effects. Despite the rapid development in this field, not much has progressed to the clinical stage. Thus, there is an urgent need to develop biomimetic-based nanomedicine to produce a highly specific and effective drug delivery system, especially for malignant tumours, which can be used for clinical purposes. Here, the recent developments for various types of biomimetic nanoparticles are discussed, along with their applications for cancer imaging and treatments.

Significance of serum palmitoleic acid levels in inflammatory bowel disease

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBDs), including ulcerative colitis (UC) and Crohn’s disease (CD), are chronic intestinal diseases of unknown etiology that present with variable disease extents and outcomes. The use of biomarkers for the diagnosis and management of IBDs is considered beneficial. Palmitoleic acid (PO) is an adipose tissue-derived mono-unsaturated free fatty acid that potentially serves as a lipokine in metabolic and inflammatory diseases. The aim of this study was to investigate the significance of PO levels in the serum of patients with UC and CD. The study included patients with UC (n = 22), patients with CD (n = 35), and controls (n = 22). The levels of serum PO were analyzed using gas chromatography. The association of serum PO levels with the clinical features and disease outcomes in IBD was examined. Serum PO levels were significantly higher in patients with CD than in controls, whereas no difference in these levels was observed between patients with UC and controls. Serum PO levels were significantly associated with the CD activity index. Additionally, high serum PO levels were associated with an increased risk of surgical intervention requirement during follow-up. In a pilot study with a few patients, high PO levels were observed in the mesenteric tissue in the active disease site of patients with CD (n = 7) compared with those with colon cancer (n = 6). Elevated serum PO levels might serve as a marker for local inflammation and prognosis in patients with CD.