Last year, approximately 140,000 Californians were diagnosed with cancer — nearly 16 per hour. Yet limited information about the quality of cancer care hinders the ability of patients, providers, and payers to make informed decisions, as well as improvements in care.

CHCF held a Sacramento briefing to review the state of information about cancer care quality in California and to propose possible paths to improve the status quo.

The session included:

• A summary of key findings from the new Institute of Medicine report Delivering High-Quality Cancer Care: Charting a New Course for a System in Crisis
• Discussion of the potential role that the California Cancer Registry could play in developing better information about cancer care quality
• Patients’ perspectives about how they search for information on where to get care, challenges faced in their searches, and what information they would like before making decisions

Presenters:

• Susan Foley, cancer survivor and patient advocate
• Patricia Ganz, MD, professor of medicine, UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine; professor of health policy and management, UCLA’s Jonathan and Karin Fielding School of Public Health; and director of cancer prevention and control research, UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Robert Hiatt, MD, PhD, professor and chair, UCSF’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics; associate director of population sciences, UCSF’s Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center
• Mark D. Smith, MD, MBA, founding president and CEO, California Health Care Foundation
• Roni Zeiger, MD, CEO, Smart Patients

A recording of the event and the presentation slides are available below.