New Health Services Research Department to Set Cancer Care Standards

Medicine has long been based on science. Now the business of medicine is building a scientific foundation, too.

The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center has launched a new academic program in health services research to help define the best cancer care practices - factoring in cost, outcomes and the quality of patients' lives. The new department will implement an evaluation process to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of M. D. Anderson's health services.

"As the range of cancer therapies grows and the funding for care is stretched thinner, patients and physicians are being forced to make tough choices every day," according to Dr. Mitchell Morris, who serves as interim department chair while a nationwide search is under way. "There is a special need for health services research in oncology, and M. D. Anderson is positioned to develop a model program."

Health services research is a young and growing science that identifies the best approaches to a disease. Faculty in the department will address such issues as how our health care system works and the effectiveness of different approaches to cancer care.

Cutting across several disciplines, the health services research program will provide information for decision-making and policy analysis regarding the organization, financing and delivery of health care.

Spurred by the era of managed care, health services research departments are being established in academic medical centers across the country. M. D. Anderson's program is the first to focus solely on cancer, according to Dr. Morris.

"In the old fee-for-service medical paradigm, there was little impetus for health services research. Health care providers had little incentive to examine the cost-efficiency of care or to respond to consumers' preferences in a non-competitive market," says Dr. Morris. "However, we now know that health services research can permit us to be competitive in the healthcare marketplace while ensuring the highest quality of care. It's a win-win situation, and thus the trend to conduct such research."

The new academic department, part of the division of cancer prevention, will conduct research to improve care for cancer patients at M. D. Anderson and beyond.

"Although new cancer therapies are increasingly effective, they are often expensive, which results in increased scrutiny on the part of payors," Dr. Morris says. "Meanwhile, there is an increasing demand for access to quality health care by the public."

The program will take advantage of the many effective interventions developed by M. D. Anderson researchers and caregivers, the hospital's large heterogeneous population of cancer patients, and the existing medical informatics and disease management infrastructure, says Dr. Morris.

Two faculty members have already joined the new department, and others are being recruited.

Associate professor Dr. Linda Elting will compare the risks, outcomes and costs of different clinical interventions, such as drug regimens, diagnostic strategies or surgical procedures. One of her first studies will look at deep venous thrombosis.

Assistant professor Dr. Scott Cantor will study the cost-effectiveness of diagnostic and screening strategies for cervical cancer. In another study, he will look at how patients, their spouses and physicians make decisions about screenings for prostate cancer.

- Robert Lucey

---

©2006 Texas Medical Center

---

E-Mail: tmc-info@tmc.edu
URL: http://www.tmc.edu/tmcnews/01_15_00/page_18.html