To advance the life-saving potential of costly precision cancer treatments, physicians have an obligation to demonstrate the invaluable benefits of those treatments via their work and research, according to Michael Caligiuri, MD, president and physician-in-chief of City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, Calif.
In an op-ed for Newsweek, Dr. Caligiuri wrote that while genome sequencing has become more affordable in recent years, "piecing together the elements of the genome that really matter in medicine and matching that learning with carefully designed new biopharmaceuticals and new opportunities for older drugs requires a hefty investment in research."
It is on physicians, then, to convince payers that the cost is worth it, he wrote. They can do so by showing how those expensive yet impactful tests not only improve clinical decision making, but also increase value across the entire healthcare system. Ideally, it will not take much persuading, since data-driven precision medicine brings us closer to what Dr. Caligiuri called "the holy grail of medicine," in which care is improved without increasing expenses.
"Getting more genetic and treatment data from cancer patients, electronic health records and the evolution of artificial intelligence in precision medicine will enable physicians to better predict who will get cancer, how to prevent it and which treatment will provide the best outcome at the earliest stage," he wrote. "That is a great deal, no matter how you cut it."
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