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For Immediate Release 8/16/2012

Betsy Haley 410-601-5529 bhaley@lifebridgehealth.org

Sinai Hospital of Baltimore Joins National Pilot Study Aimed to Improve Care for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients

Sinai Hospital is among a group of six hospitals to recently join a national pilot study under way to promote evidence-based evaluation and treatment standards for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who are candidates for surgical lung resection.

Leading the study is Nikhilesh Korgaonkar, M.D., chief of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Sinai Hospital, along with Mark Katlic, M.D., chief of Surgery at Sinai Hospital.

“We are proud to have been selected to participate in this landmark national study,” says Korgaonkar. “Our participation signals our commitment to quality, reliability and ensuring gold-standard care for our lung cancer patients.”

The Commission on Cancer (CoC) National Pilot Study for the ProvenCare® Lung Cancer Collaborative is based on the success of the Geisinger Health System’s ProvenCare model. This treatment model has been applied to other disease sites, where it has significantly increased medical teams’ adherence to evidence-based care standards, improved patients’ clinical outcomes and engaged patients as participants in their own care. The groundbreaking study currently has analyzed data of 500 patients and marks the first time that Geisinger’s ProvenCare model has been applied to a patient population undergoing a lung resection procedure for NSCLC. The goal is to capture data of 500 more patients over the next 12 months, thus expanding the study group size to 1,000 patients.  

The pilot study – first launched in July 2010 with six CoC accredited institutions – promotes a specific care pathway of 38 standard elements that are followed by interdisciplinary treatment teams for patients’ preoperative to postoperative care periods. With the six new participating institutions beginning data collection activities on August 6, the number of hospitals now participating in the collaborative grows to 12. As of April 2012, 90 percent of the 38 elements of care were followed by the initial six pilot sites for each patient entered into the study.

The treatment team at Sinai Hospital will commit to providing all 38 of the established care pathway steps to ensure that non-small cell lung cancer patients receive the highest standard of care at their institution. Importantly, patients in the study lend their participation to the process by making a commitment to communicate with the members of their surgical team (that is, when they do not understand something or when asked about current medications), getting their family or loved ones involved in their treatment plan, and completing important care steps outlined to them by their health care providers. Patient engagement is an important element of Geisinger’s ProvenCare as research studies have shown that patients have better results when they participate in their own medical care.

The CoC has accredited more than 1,500 cancer treatment centers throughout the United States, which in turn treat 71 percent of all cancer patients diagnosed each year. “We are pleased to expand Geisinger’s ProvenCare model in this study to six more institutions.  This effort positions health care providers to use ‘best practices’ in treating patients. And working with health care providers to deliver quality care has long been the cornerstone of the Commission on Cancer,” said David P. Winchester, M.D., F.A.C.S., medical director, American College of Surgeons Cancer Programs.

Sinai Hospital is part of LifeBridge Health, one of the largest, most comprehensive providers of health services in northwest Baltimore. LifeBridge Health also includes Northwest Hospital, Levindale Hebrew Geriatric Center and Hospital, Courtland Gardens Nursing & Rehabilitation Center, and related subsidiaries and affiliates. For more information, visit www.lifebridgehealth.org.

About the American College of Surgeons

The American College of Surgeons is a scientific and educational organization of surgeons that was founded in 1913 to raise the standards of surgical practice and to improve the care of the surgical patient. The American College of Surgeons currently has 78,000 members and is the largest organization of surgeons in the world. In the field of cancer care, the American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (CoC) is a pioneer in measuring performance. All hospitals and freestanding cancer treatment facilities accredited by the CoC report clinical data to the National Cancer Data Base and receive evidence-based benchmark comparison reports based on accepted standards of care for breast and colorectal cancers. These measures are endorsed by the National Quality Forum. More News...