Empowered Patient Podcast Comprehensive Cancer Care Navigation Improving Patient Outcomes with Dr. Kamal Golla Evolent
Dr. Kamal Golla, Vice President of Clinical Technologies and Performance at Evolent, highlights the complexities of cancer care and the need for care navigation to address medical, emotional, financial, and logistical challenges. This comprehensive approach leads to improved treatment adherence and patient satisfaction while reducing emergency room visits and hospitalization. The care team serves as an extension of the medical decision-makers, helping to manage care across multiple specialists, advising on overcoming side effects, and reducing logistical hurdles to ease the burden on physicians and caregivers, ultimately improving patient outcomes.
Kamal explains, "Cancer care navigation is really about creating a roadmap for patients. It's making sure they're not left alone to piece together appointments, interpret side effects, or figure out how to pay for medications. The role of a navigator here is really to guide them through the whole journey. That includes the medical components that many folks are familiar with, but also the emotional, financial, and logistical components that come with a cancer diagnosis. The evidence is really clear, given that more than half of emergency department visits and nearly a quarter of hospitalizations related to cancer care are actually avoidable, that responding rapidly to these situations is key."
"In our navigation program, we are rooted in patient-centric navigation, meaning we ask them what the transportation difficulties are that they might face. Who is your caregiver and their support? What do you do for work? What are your cultural and religious beliefs? All of those play a big part in dealing with the new diagnosis of cancer. We want all of that information to be able to provide a very personalized journey."
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