Improving Access to Treatment for Lung Cancer Patients

What happens when a person develops lung cancer? In the best of cases, the individual experiences a timely diagnosis and is counseled on all their treatment options, including:

• stage-appropriate treatment
• palliative care
• clinical trials
• financial or emotional support resources
• anything else pertinent to their new way of life

Too often, however, we hear of people whose journey through the diagnosis was too long and challenging, or people who are given their diagnosis and never referred for treatment. In the worst occasions, some people are told, “Get your affairs in order,” or, “There’s nothing I can do for you.”

To address these issues head-on, the National Lung Cancer Partnership has initiated a new project, dubbed "Improving Access to Treatment for Lung Cancer Patients" (AccessTLC). This two-part project will be implemented through a unique collaboration with:

• University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
• Healthcare Performance Consulting
• our North Carolina Chapter

This initiative is supported by an educational grant from Pfizer.

Part 1: Documenting Timeliness of Lung Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

We are working to document the time it takes for a person with lung cancer to go from diagnosis to treatment. We hope to better understand why any unnecessary delays to treatment occur so we can create effective programs for health care providers to improve patient care. We firmly believe with the treatment options we have available today, appropriate and timely referral to the right care should improve survival rates.

This study will measure the time it takes for lung cancer patients to be diagnosed and receive appropriate care in:

• Wisconsin - a state with one of the LOWEST incidences of lung cancer in the US
• North Carolina - a state with one of the HIGHEST incidences of lung cancer in the US

Part 2: Educating the Medical Community

We will use the information learned in the first part of the project to launch comprehensive educational outreach activities to improve the care patients receive throughout the country.

AccessTLC has already developed several learning activities designed specifically for primary care
providers:

1. Primary care physicians can participate in a free, online Learning from Self- Assessment (LSA) CME activity. Physicians can test their clinical competencies through a series of case studies.
2. Primary care physicians in Wisconsin and North Carolina have already had access to live educational activities:“What Every Family Physician Should Know About Lung Cancer.” The presentations have teamed a lung cancer survivor with a medical oncologist to present a comprehensive overview of a real-life diagnosis of lung cancer. This program can be replicated for other medical education audiences; if you are interested in bringing the program to your area, please contact Regina Vidaver.

The driving force behind everything we do at the Partnership is hope: hope for an improved outlook for the person facing lung cancer, hope for a longer, better life after diagnosis and hope for the families who have lost loved ones who wish for others not to be so tragically affected.

It is with this hope that we embark on this ambitious project to help fulfill our mission of decreasing deaths due to lung cancer and helping patients live longer and better lives.