The Miriam Hospital Chosen as Pilot Site for National Breast Cancer Registry
(posted December 15, 2009)
The Breast Center at the Adele R. Decof Comprehensive Cancer Center at The Miriam Hospital has been chosen by the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO) as one of 20 sites for its national Breast Cancer Registry Pilot Program.
Funded by Susan G. Komen for the Cure®, this two-year program aims to provide information, education and access to community and national resources, such as the American Cancer Society, to improve communication and care coordination for patients with breast cancer, and to collect data in a registry that can be used for practice-based quality improvement.
“Discovering and sharing best practices in outpatient oncology will help ensure that every breast cancer patient receives the highest level of care, both now and in the future,” said Rochelle Strenger, MD, co-director of the hospital’s Breast Center and the study’s principal investigator. “The Miriam Hospital plans to be an active participant in this important initiative as we lend our expertise and contribute to this much-needed breast cancer registry.”
Currently, there is no registry that specifically targets outpatient medical oncology care, where approximately 85 percent of cancer care is delivered, according to the ASCO Cancer Foundation.
As a pilot site, The Miriam Hospital’s Breast Center will collect and enter data on newly diagnosed patients with Stage 0-III breast cancer for 18 months using ASCO’s web-based template, which will generate patient-specific breast cancer treatment plans and summaries. The oncology team will also discuss the content of the treatment plan and summary documents with each patient. Clinicians then participate in a research study to evaluate the use of treatment plans and summaries according to the Registry Pilot Program methodology.
After successful completion of the Breast Cancer Registry Pilot Program, the registry will remain open as a viable repository of data about breast cancer patients that can be used for practice-based quality improvement and research.
The Breast Center at the Adele R. Decof Comprehensive Cancer Center at The Miriam Hospital is accredited by the National Accreditation Program for Breast Centers and treats more than 200 cases of breast cancer each year. In 2009, an estimated 192,370 new cases of invasive breast cancer and approximately 62,000 cases of non-invasive breast cancer will be diagnosed among women in the United States, according to the American Cancer Society.
Strenger is also a clinical assistant professor of medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a physician with University Medicine Foundation, Inc.