AAMD Webinars

All AAMD webinars are available for viewing and CE credit up to one month after the live session date
Click here for details on how to upgrade to Member-Plus and view all of the webinars and CE modules in 2012 for $100

Cancer Care Delivery in a Time of Health Care Reform
Thomas Feeley, MD

February 29, 2012
2:00pm EST (Note the time change for this webinar)
$35 Members, $55 Non-Members
Member-Plus: Included with your membership

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Abstract:
The United States requires a safer, more effective, and more efficient system of health care delivery to sustain and improve the care provided to our population. Although the ARRA and the ACA in particular attempts to improve quality of care through measure development, reporting and testing of different delivery system and reimbursement models, the cancer care community should undertake a more in-depth analysis into practice variation, guideline measurement, volume providers, and inappropriate care across providers. It is crucial that examination of the proposed programs and changes to the delivery system continue if the goal of increased quality and safety of care in the most efficient system is to be reached. The cancer-specific measures in the law are relatively well defined. The broader measures in the law provide the most uncertainty regarding the future of cancer care delivery. Determining the impact of wider access to health care on our current payment system is new territory; however, decreases in payment rates from the Medicare and Medicaid programs appear to be inevitable. How the insurance industry and the provider community will respond is largely unknown, but reductions in managed care contracting rates appear likely, as does decreased participation in federal insurance programs by providers.

The demonstrations of PCHMs and ACOs are of critical importance to cancer care providers, because new systems designed to emphasize primary care, early-detection, and disease prevention offer promising opportunities to decrease the prevalence and mortality of cancer. However, these measures also generate uncertainty regarding how established tertiary-care cancer centers will need to relate to these new entities with respect to patient flow and reimbursement for care. New models for reimbursement, such as bundled payments for episodes of care and the availability of more comparative effectiveness evidence, offer the promise of transition away from payment based on volume and intensity of service, but also introduce new uncertainty about risk and profit-sharing aspects of such a system.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Explain the importance of quality systems in cancer care
  2. Describe how new legislation will impact cancer centers

 

An Introduction to Class Solutions
Matt Palmer, MBA, CMD

April 11, 2012
1:00pm EST
$35 Members, $55 Non-Members
Member-Plus: Included with your membership

Abstract:
The clinical implementation of Intensity Modulated Radiation Therapy (IMRT) has significantly increased over the past decade. IMRT technology has revolutionized the delivery and accuracy of radiation therapy because of its ability to deliver a uniform radiation dose to the target while minimizing normal tissue exposure. IMRT advantages are increased conformality of the delivered radiation and dose escalation for better control rates. The downside to this high level of conformality is the complex radiation delivery equipment and treatment planning software required to optimize the directions and intensities of the individual radiation beams. The treatment plan quality is dependent on selected beam angles, delineated organs at risk (OAR), defined objectives, and the chosen objective priorities. The parameters listed above are variables that are dependent on the treatment planner’s IMRT treatment planning knowledge and experience. Optimal solutions have never been fully defined for each anatomical site because there are so many parameters involved with each site. The treatment planner usually struggles defining the right set of parameters (beam angles, dose limits, weights, importance factors, etc) and their priorities up-front. IMRT Experience is a contributing factor to inter- and intra-IMRT treatment planner results, but other important contributing factors are the frequency of exposure to site-specific IMRT cases and the total number of planned cases.

This presentation will highlight our experiences with class solution development, which includes: the "class solution" concept, the developmental process of class solutions, the concepts behind data analysis and evaluation, and go through applications and examples.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Describe the "class solution" concept
  2. Describe the developmental process of "class solutions"
  3. Concepts behind data analysis and evaluation
  4. Workflow of developed class solution for one site
  5. Applications and examples

 

Future webinar topics and speakers:

  • May 23 - An Introduction to Tomotherapy - Stephanie Key, CMD     
  • July 11 - Partial Breast Irradiation Techniques - Theresa Kwiatkowski, CMD        
  • September 19 - An Introduction to Proton Therapy - Craig McKenzie, CMD

Your webinar payment confirmation email will have a hyperlink(s) at the bottom of the page where you will finalize your registration through GoToMeeting