Streamlining the Patient Experience: A Panel Discussion on Strategies for Ensuring Patient Access to Tailored Health Care

Schedule of benefits. Prior authorization. Informed consent. The complexities of the United States health care system can make it difficult for patients to access personalized medicine.

For example, although more than 70 percent of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (aNSCLC) patients are estimated to have actionable mutations that can inform personalized treatment options, many aNSCLC patients never receive genetic testing. Even among patients who do receive genetic testing, research conducted by the Personalized Medicine Coalition shows that oncologists are still prescribing one-size-fits-all treatments to as many as 40 percent of those who could have benefitted from targeted therapies. In a Washington Post op-ed about President Joe Biden’s research-oriented Cancer Moonshot published on February 15, 2022, PMC President Edward Abrahams lamented this failure to “save lives from cancer with tools we already have.”

“While it is important to pursue long-term goals, it is also critical to ensure that cancer patients today benefit from programs, tools and therapies that have already been developed,” Abrahams wrote.

With attention to emerging and established tools spanning multiple disease states, a caregiver, a payer, a pharmaceutical industry representative, and a health system administrator will discuss strategies that might make it easier for patients to access high-quality health care tailored to each patient’s needs.