David Eagle, MD: Community Oncology Alliance (COA) Goals for 2012 and Beyond
The Group Room sits down with Dr. David Eagle at the 2012 Community Oncology Alliance (COA) Annual Meeting. Dr. Eagle is a medical oncologist at the Lake Norman Hematology-Oncology in North Carolina and the current COA Board President. He gives an overview of the initiatives of COA for 2012 and beyond as well as why it is important for community oncologists.
The Group Room interviews at the Community Oncology Alliance (COA) 2012 annual meeting in Las Vegas was made possible by the generous support of our members.
VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Selma Schimmel, Founder & CEO, Vital Options International
This is Selma Schimmel for The Group Room at the Community Oncology Alliance meeting in Las Vegas. Our discussions continue now with the COA Board President, Dr. David Eagle. Dr. Eagle is a medical oncologist at the Lake Norman Hematology-Oncology Practice in North Carolina. Welcome.
David Eagle, MD, Medical Oncologist, Lake Norman Hem-Onc., North Carolina
Thank you very much.
Selma Schimmel, Founder & CEO, Vital Options International
Thank you for being here because what I really want to talk to you about are -the goals for COA in 2012 and beyond, -why is COA important for community oncologists, and –sort of this role that we’ve been talking about off air, about community oncologists involved in clinical trials.
David Eagle, MD, Medical Oncologist, Lake Norman Hem-Onc., North Carolina
Sure. Well, the goals for COA in 2012 continue to be centered on explaining why community practices have value in our modern cancer delivery system. We treat probably about 80% of the patients, cancer patients, in the United States and I think it’s under appreciated how much a part of the fabric of cancer care we are. So we first need to explain that to the public, beyond that, we kind of need to protect the delivery system for cancer patients.
One of the examples of where that’s become threatened is the generic drug shortage. Patients… I will schedule a patient for the following Monday for treatment- we’ll typically order the drugs several days ahead of time and what we’re finding is that sometimes these very inexpensive medications are unavailable and all of the sudden we have to scramble and create a plan B for the patient. That can be very distressing for the patients and unfortunately, sometimes a solution of an equivalent drug is not always available, and that just shouldn’t be happening. The generic drugs represent about 2% of the total cancer drug spending and they really shouldn’t be in short supplies. And that is the example of the types of things we get involved in and one of our top priorities this year.
The other goals this year will be to continue to look towards reimbursement reform in a way that supports community cancer programs. There has been a large wave of closures of cancer programs over the past several years and mergers into larger entities, and I think really, without any net benefits to the patients at all. So I think that needs to be looked at as well too. So those are two of the things that are at the top of our priority list this year.
Selma Schimmel, Founder & CEO, Vital Options International
In speaking with your executive director a bit ago we talked about the role of patients and the importance of advocacy and the kind of collaboration that the physician community really does need now to establish and enhance with patients and advocates. Can you talk about that a little more?
David Eagle, MD, Medical Oncologist, Lake Norman Hem-Onc., North Carolina
I think patients have the strongest voice in terms of protecting the cancer delivery system. The people who have been through it know it the best and they understand the value. It’s hard, as an oncologist, to ever really ask any more of our patients, and certainly any patients under active treatment, are not in a position where they can really be advocates. I think it’s either their family members or cancer survivors who are in the best position to do that.
Selma Schimmel, Founder & CEO, Vital Options International
Clinical trials are very expensive to conduct, clinical trials in a community setting are, for some doctors, probably cost prohibitive- how can COA help doctors within the community make clinical trials more accessible to patients so patients don’t have to travel quite as far to cancer centers? Doesn’t mean the cancer centers and private physicians cannot collaborate, but certainly, patients would like to see more access to clinical trials and research available in the community setting.
David Eagle, MD, Medical Oncologist, Lake Norman Hem-Onc., North Carolina
That question just came up at the conference about 45-minutes ago and I don’t know that there are any easy answers for that. Some practices develop, some larger practices develop very comprehensive cancer research programs within the practice, but those are rare actually. In our community, the hospital system does a very good job supporting the research effort in the community, so private practice has been able to cooperate with the hospital systems in terms of enrolling patients in clinical trials, and it’s working very well for us.
Selma Schimmel, Founder & CEO, Vital Options International
Dr. Eagle, what is the message you would like your colleagues in medical oncology to know and hear from you now in order for them to become more involved in COA and why they need to become involved and how do they become involved?
David Eagle, MD, Medical Oncologist, Lake Norman Hem-Onc., North Carolina
Sure. Well, COA tries to make it very easy for oncologists to interact with us. The reason we think that they need to support COA is because we are defending and supporting their interest all day long. Again, like we had spoken about, community oncologists have a tremendous investment in their education, their training, and their practices, and everything they need to do to take care of patients. And we are here to help defend that for policy makers that really may not understand what they need regarding the provision of cancer care.
Our website has a site that says ‘immediate action needed’ so any physician can get on any time and find out what those current advocacy issues are that need to, that they can participate in. It’s always just a few simple steps that oncologists can do to actually make a difference in terms of how their practice life is. That is a struggle for oncologists, which is they don’t know how to interact with the system. And you really can’t do it as an isolated physician, you have to be part of a larger effort to make it worthwhile.
Selma Schimmel, Founder & CEO, Vital Options International
So, is COA a membership organization?
David Eagle, MD, Medical Oncologist, Lake Norman Hem-Onc., North Carolina
We are a membership organization but, and we need the support of members to operate but whether you’re a member or not, you can always go on the website and take some of the action steps that we recommend to help advocate for certain issues.
Selma Schimmel, Founder & CEO, Vital Options International
Is there criteria for a physician practice to become a member?
David Eagle, MD, Medical Oncologist, Lake Norman Hem-Onc., North Carolina
There really isn’t a strict criteria- I think, as long as you are a community practice and you have an interest in participating with COA, that’s really… we’re interested in helping anybody who has a community practice they’re trying to support.
Selma Schimmel, Founder & CEO, Vital Options International
And does COA have an active relationship with ASCO?
David Eagle, MD, Medical Oncologist, Lake Norman Hem-Onc., North Carolina
Yes, COA has, we have a very good relationship with ASCO because we all need to be working together. And, I think it is critical that all of the cancer organizations work in a coordinated fashion because we’re really all working on the same problems. And so, we do, it’s very important that everybody works together and in close format these days.
Selma Schimmel, Founder & CEO, Vital Options International
Thank you, Dr. David Eagle- COA Board President. You’re a medical oncologist at Lake Norman Hematology-Oncology in North Carolina.
David Eagle, MD, Medical Oncologist, Lake Norman Hem-Onc., North Carolina
Thank you for having me.
Selma Schimmel, Founder & CEO, Vital Options International
Thank you very much.
END OF VIDEO