Oncology, 6 out of 10 facilities are poorly connected to the territory
Only 40% of oncology centers are connected with screening centers and primary and secondary prevention departments. 66% do not use computerized medical records and, when present, in just 8% of cases they are shared with the territory. More generally. Many have deficiencies in the internal organizational aspects and in the management of the patient’s journey from the hospital to the territory, even though they are placed within an oncology department (67%). These are some preliminary results of a survey that the Italian College of Primary Hospital Medical Oncologists (Cipomo) is carrying out on a sample of approximately 100 primary doctors among its members. The data were presented in the first official meeting between Cipomo and the Italian Association of Medical Oncology, on the occasion of the national Aiom congress which ended yesterday in Rome.
The challenges
The speed of pharmacological innovation, hyperspecialization and multidisciplinarity present at the same time advantages and challenges in building the oncological path of patients. Challenges that require a new organization: “Our data indicates the need for a new governance capable of ensuring the global care of patients in light of the speed of innovations coming from research – declares Luisa Fioretto, president of CIPOMO and director of the Oncology Department and SOC Medical Oncology, Local Health Authority of Central Tuscany -. Driving the change is the evolution of the figure of the primary hospital medical oncologist, whose work is certainly more complex at a management level today. Even if apparently this is only a ‘technical’ issue, in reality it develops above all externally, on patient services, on the quality of care and services dedicated to him. Topics that naturally involve all of Italian oncology.”
Lung cancer, anticipating target therapy reduces the risk of the disease returning
by Elisa Manacorda
The poster
Precisely to guide the medical director in this evolution, Cipomo presented the Manifesto for the profile of the Chief Hospital Medical Oncologist today. Among the points, the need to operate in a network inside and outside the hospital, rationalizing hospital access and strengthening local assistance.
Finally, a central theme is that of the sustainability of the system, both in terms of personnel management and the costs of new treatments, in a context of shortage of healthcare workers and the economic crisis of Italian healthcare. “The evolved figure of the head hospital doctor – concludes Fioretto – involves on the one hand the establishment of clinics and multidisciplinary pathology groups and the implementation of clinical research, on the other, early access to innovative drugs, paying attention to the appropriateness and to the sustainability of the routes”.
