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Scott Becker - Cancer & Shortages of Oncologists 8-18-26 · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  - This is Scott Becker
• 0:01
  - with the Becker's Healthcare and the Becker Business
• 0:04
  - Podcast.
• 0:04
  - Today's discussion is cancer and shortages of oncologists.
• 0:09
  - So so today's discussion is this. Right now,
• 0:11
  - we're in a spot in our country
• 0:13
  - that when somebody has a serious cancer diagnosis,
• 0:17
  - finding a specialized oncologist
• 0:19
  - who's not completely
• 0:20
  - exhausted or overwhelmed is nearly impossible.
• 0:24
  - We have about 27,000
• 0:25
  - to 28,000 oncologists in the country,
• 0:28
  - but there's about two million new diagnoses of
• 0:30
  - cancer a year. Now some people will say
• 0:33
  - to you
• 0:34
  - that many of those diagnoses
• 0:36
  - are for minor cancers and don't require an
• 0:38
  - oncologist.
• 0:39
  - And and the first thing I'll tell you
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  - is
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  - the definition of minor cancer is a cancer
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  - that somebody else has. If somebody in your
• 0:47
  - family or anybody related to has a cancer
• 0:49
  - or a close friend,
• 0:51
  - there's almost no such thing as truly a
• 0:53
  - minor cancer.
• 0:54
  - But what you're finding in the country is
• 0:56
  - you have a challenging diagnosis.
• 0:58
  - The bench specialist
• 1:00
  - in today's world is very, very short,
• 1:03
  - and and it's something, obviously, we'd like to
• 1:05
  - see addressed. And not withstanding the big systems
• 1:07
  - that promote how deep they are in cancer
• 1:09
  - care,
• 1:09
  - what we find right now is there's real
• 1:11
  - shortages every place. Thank you for listening to
• 1:13
  - the special episode of the Becker's health care
• 1:15
  - and the Becker business podcast. Thank you so
• 1:18
  - much.