Register for the 20th Annual Fall Cancer Policy Roundtable

Just two weeks after the election, a panel of health policy experts will offer their perspectives on the short- and long-term implications of the election. The panel discussion will take place just one week after the Supreme Court hears oral arguments in the case challenging the Affordable Care Act, and during a surge in COVID-19 cases in the U.S. The panelists will discuss these issues in the context of the 2020 election and with attention to how the election results will affect cancer survivors.

Debra Curtis
DC Health Benefit Exchange Authority

Rodney Whitlock, PhD
McDermott+Consulting

Julie Rovner (moderator)
Kaiser Health News

The cancer experience is not the same for all cancer survivors. Inequities in the health care system disproportionately hurt patients of color, and studies show that their outcomes are worse because of these injustices. As patient advocate and cancer survivor Jamil Rivers, said, “Going through cancer treatment is like climbing Mount Everest, and racism is like a backpack of concrete Black patients carry along the way.”

The inequities in the health care system have special urgency during the coronavirus pandemic. We have seen COVID-19 take an especially heavy toll on Black and Hispanic Americans, who have suffered a greater incidence of COVID-19, often with poor outcomes. This panel will discuss the systemic inequities that exist in cancer care and what we can do to eliminate barriers to quality care. Although the panel will focus on cancer care disparities, the pandemic, and the inequities it has highlighted will also be considered.

Katherine E. Reeder-Hayes, MD, MSc, MBA
UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

Arnethea L. Sutton, PhD
Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine

Nadine J. Barrett, PhD
Duke University

Otis Brawley, MD (moderator)
Johns Hopkins University

When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the health care system and patient access to care, oncologists and their patients embraced the delivery of some cancer care services by telehealth. The delivery of care by telehealth provided a safe means to receive care without delays and afforded practices an opportunity to implement in-office mitigation and safety procedures for resumption of some care face-to-face.

NCCS immediately sought advice, through a series of focus groups of cancer survivors, on the benefits and limitations of telehealth during the pandemic and on steps that patients and providers can take to improve telehealth quality. That advice is being shared with both providers and patients through “tip sheets.” The focus group participants identified the potential for telehealth to improve access to quality cancer care during the pandemic and beyond, with an emphasis on the possibility for telehealth innovation for survivorship care, palliative care, second opinions, and other cancer care services.

This panel will consider issues related to the delivery of cancer care by telehealth during the pandemic and beyond, with an emphasis on quality assurance and innovation to enhance cancer care access and quality.

Laura Petrillo, MD
Massachusetts General Hospital

Cardinale B. Smith, MD, PhD
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Jennifer Malin, MD
UnitedHealthcare

Kristin McNiff Landrum, MPH
KM Healthcare Consulting

Shelley Fuld Nasso, MPP (moderator)
National Coalition for Cancer Survivorship

Emily Tonorezos, MD, MPH
Director, Office of Cancer Survivorship
National Cancer Institute

In August, Dr. Tonorezos was appointed Director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship (OCS) at the National Cancer Institute (NCI). We talked with Dr. Tonorezos about her background, clinical practice, and survivorship research, as well as what inspired her to take on the role of leading the OCS. We also asked what she has learned in her first months on the job and how she sees the role of advocacy.

Kashyap Patel, MD
Carolina Blood and Cancer Care

Dr. Patel is a practicing oncologist and CEO of Carolina Blood and Cancer Care Associates in South Carolina and a national leader in community oncology, serving in leadership roles of the Community Oncology Alliance and Association for Community Cancer Centers. He is the author of Between Life and Death: From Despair to Hope, in which he explores how to prepare patients for a good death. He shares the experiences of his patients, along with his own experience and study of spirituality, philosophy, and science.

Julia H. Rowland, PhD
Smith Center for Healing and the Arts
2020 Stovall Award Honoree

Julia H. Rowland, PhD is a long-time clinician, researcher, and teacher in the area of psychosocial aspects of cancer. She has worked with and conducted competitively funded research among both pediatric and adult cancer survivors, and published broadly in psycho-oncology. She was recruited to the National Cancer Institute (NCI) to become the first, full-time Director of the Office of Cancer Survivorship (OCS). After 18 years in this role, Dr. Rowland retired from service at the NCI in September 2017 and assumed the role of Senior Strategic Advisor at Smith Center for Healing and the Arts, a small non-profit organization that has been providing integrative support services to cancer patients and their families for over twenty years.

Thomas J. Smith, MD
Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
2020 Stovall Award Honoree

Thomas J. Smith, M.D., is a professor of oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, director of Palliative Medicine for Johns Hopkins Medicine and the Harry J. Duffey Family Professor of Palliative Care. He is a medical oncologist and a palliative care specialist with a lifelong interest in better symptom management, communication, and improving access to high quality affordable care. Dr. Smith began Johns Hopkins’ hospital-wide palliative care consult service as well as an inpatient unit, and he is dedicated to accelerating palliative care research and education.

Dr. Smith is also a prostate cancer survivor, experiencing first hand surgery, recurrence, “salvage” radiation therapy and androgen deprivation therapy with many significant side effects. He knows all too well the experience of living and working while waiting for the other shoe to drop.