NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Breast Cancer Faculty Share 2020 Resolutions to Improve Patient Care

During the 2020 OncLive^® State of the Science Summit^™ on Breast Cancer, faculty from NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center shared their resolutions for the new year and the efforts being made to improve patient outcomes in practice.

Kevin Kalinsky, MD, MS

Kevin Kalinsky, MD, MS: Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

“Today, I came across a quote that I saw on Twitter that was talking about patients and their participation in clinical trials. [The message it was conveying is that] perhaps we really shouldn’t be [referring to] patients who enroll on these trials using the terminology of ‘subjects’ or even ‘patients’—they are more like ‘collaborators.’

We really can’t move forward [in the development of] future treatments without their time and dedication to the trials. As such, in this new year, I believe that we should continue to focus on the gratitude that we have for those who participate in clinical trials. We would not be where we are now without their collaboration. Hopefully, in 5 to 10 years, [the treatment of patients with breast cancer] will really change [for the better] because of their participation.”

Melissa K. Accordino, MD, MS

Melissa K. Accordino, MD, MS

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University

“My resolution is helping my patients to better understand both the efficacy of the treatment options [available] as well as the potential adverse events [associated with those options] that could impact their quality of life. To this end, we’re hoping to create some educational tools to help patients make better choices for themselves.”

Dawn L. Hershman, MD, MS

Dawn L. Hershman, MD, MS

Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, and Leader, Breast Cancer Program, Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University

“One of the things that we’re really focusing on is enhancing patient-provider communication. [By that I mean] using electronic media, whether it’s through the electronic medical record or patient-reported outcomes, to better understand the symptoms that our patients are experiencing even between visits because some patients don’t come in that often.

The second thing is to really [educate] patients [on what they] can do themselves to improve their outcomes. [This could entail] spending a little bit of time discussing [the importance of] exercise and diet, and [explaining how] not smoking and limiting alcohol can all have a big [impact] on cancer prevention.”

Roshni Rao, MDD

Roshni Rao, MD

Chief, Breast Surgery Program, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center

“In practice, I have been focused on finding ways to minimize the use of opioids. I believe [this effort is] something that’s really important to all of us; it’s in the headlines all the time and we’re always having to find a balance [between pain management and harm]. We want to ensure that the patient is comfortable, but many studies show that opioid use, after surgery in particular, is kind of a [gateway] to abuse, addiction, and those types of issues. As such, we’re working as a group to formalize ways to minimize narcotics but still keep our patients comfortable.”

Eileen P. Connolly, MD, PhD

Eileen P. Connolly, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Radiation Oncology, Department of Radiation Oncology, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center

“In our practice, we’re always looking to improve patient care. We’re [constantly adopting] more symptom management [efforts] into practice; that’s definitely something that we do much more than we used to. We work closely with physical therapists, work on clinical trials to avoid radiation, and look at trials to see how we can treat in a way that is going to be organ-sparing—all in an effort to improve long-term outcomes.”

Katherine D. Crew, MD

Katherine D. Crew, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, Director, Clinical Breast Cancer Prevention Program, Columbia University Irving Medical Center, and Director, DataBase Shared Resource at Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, Columbia University

“[As of] February 1, 2020, we [switched] over to a brand-new electronic health record, which is [a little stressful] because we see a large volume of patients and we want to be efficient. [This is good because] documentation is important, but we also don’t want to lose that personal touch when it comes to talking to our patients, especially when we’re dealing with many sensitive issues. My hope is that when we switch over to this new system, it won’t interfere with that patient-provider interaction—that ‘human touch’ that we need.”