In 2019, the trends in cancer care will highlight improvements and opening new doors from previous trends. We will continue to see the use of immunology, which uses the body’s immune system to fight cancer, as part of a personalized treatment plan that is less toxic than chemotherapy.
We’ll also continue to see advancements in the use of big data to help inform better treatment plans for our patients and analyze outcomes. For example, with the Oncology Care Model, or OCM, we have the best information we’ve ever had about patients. This helps us to streamline processes, identify those in need of extra attention, make alterations in treatment and dosages and more.
Our goal is to detect symptoms from disease or treatment earlier, improve quality of life, and have open and transparent conversations with patients and caregivers, and part of that comes from our ability to mine the data and obtain better information about our patients’ health.
Dr. J. Russell Hoverman