Latest / Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast / Precision Radiation Oncology and Expanding Access in Community Care with Amit Garg, MD

Transcript

Precision Radiation Oncology and Expanding Access in Community Care with Amit Garg, MD · Becker’s Healthcare - Clinical Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
• 0:02
  I'm Elizabeth Gregersen, a reporter here at Becker's,
• 0:05
  and I'm thrilled to interview
• 0:07
  doctor Amit Garg,
• 0:09
  medical director of radiation oncology at Presbyterian
• 0:13
  and quality officer of the cancer program
• 0:16
  on our podcast today.
• 0:18
  Thank you so much for joining me. I'm
• 0:20
  very grateful to share your insights with our
• 0:22
  podcast audience.
• 0:24
  Good morning. It's great to be here. Thanks
• 0:26
  for having me. Perfect. Before we dive in,
• 0:29
  could you take some time to just introduce
• 0:31
  yourself and maybe tell us a little bit
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  about your organization?
• 0:35
  Oh, sure. Yeah.
• 0:36
  My name is Amit Garg.
• 0:39
  I am very grateful to be practicing
• 0:42
  in
• 0:43
  a very large community based setting here in
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  Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we serve
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  a very large under
• 0:52
  underrepresented
• 0:53
  community with regards to
• 0:55
  cancer care in general,
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  but also,
• 0:59
  more at large with regards to health care
• 1:02
  access
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  as well quality, you know. So it's, it's
• 1:06
  really nice to be practicing here. My background,
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  I I grew up in Houston and and
• 1:12
  was trained mostly
• 1:14
  in Houston.
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  I went to residency at MD Anderson Cancer.
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  A wonderful experience. I joined the faculty,
• 1:22
  after that and practiced
• 1:24
  in this community for,
• 1:27
  fourteen
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  years as a faculty member of MD Anderson.
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  And then about, two or three years ago,
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  we were acquired by our local
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  hospital system, Presbyterian Healthcare Services, where I've been
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  practicing
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  for the past fifteen plus years,
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  in the setting.
• 1:44
  Perfect. Well, I appreciate you taking the time
• 1:46
  to, speak with us today and to kinda
• 1:49
  share your insights to our larger Becker's audience.
• 1:52
  You know, our listeners
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  won't just be from the field of oncology,
• 1:55
  so it's always kind of nice to be
• 1:57
  able to share
• 1:59
  with hospital and health system leaders, you know,
• 2:01
  from the c suite to other specialties to
• 2:04
  to across the care continuum,
• 2:06
  what's happening. So
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  I think to get us started, I'd love
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  to just hear maybe the major trends or
• 2:11
  innovations
• 2:12
  that you're following right now when it comes
• 2:15
  to radiation oncology that maybe our listeners should
• 2:18
  be aware of as well.
• 2:20
  Yeah. Sure. Absolutely. I appreciate that question because
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  it kinda speaks to
• 2:24
  where things are going in our field and
• 2:27
  trends in general
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  with cancer care. And I think when you
• 2:31
  look at the big picture,
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  probably the most important trend
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  is that the indications
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  for,
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  you know, precise
• 2:40
  radiation therapy
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  are continuing to rise.
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  So, you know,
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  there's a focus on quality of life as
• 2:48
  well as length of life.
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  And what's being shown
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  is that precision radiotherapy,
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  such as in the form of stereotactic
• 2:57
  body radiotherapy,
• 2:58
  but also other types,
• 3:00
  are increasingly
• 3:01
  used
• 3:03
  to maintain quality of life, to actually improve
• 3:05
  quality of life in those patients who are
• 3:07
  symptomatic, but also patients
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  who are treated aggressively
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  and also lengthen life.
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  And, you know, what what that's kind of
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  done over the past,
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  I'd say, one to two decades
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  is it's really given clinicians and patients more
• 3:24
  options with regards to their cancer care.
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  And
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  it it's allowed us to be more aggressive
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  in how we manage cancers. And
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  and, of course, patients are living longer, and
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  that's the other. You know, patients are living
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  a lot longer. So as they live longer
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  with advancements in heart disease and
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  other
• 3:43
  other treatments for other types of diseases, it's
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  made
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  the treatment the precise treatment of cancer care
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  all the more important
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  in order to maintain quality of life and
• 3:53
  length of life.
• 3:55
  Perfect. And, you know, I'd love to build
• 3:57
  on that just a little bit.
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  Quality of life and length of life, Those
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  precision treatments obviously are such a major achievement
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  and and, like you said, over the past
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  two decades, such a testament to the progress
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  that's been made. Is there anything that's happened
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  maybe in the past six, twelve, eighteen months
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  that has stood out most to you in
• 4:16
  radiation oncology or cancer care in general?
• 4:19
  Gosh. Yeah. Over that time frame,
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  you know, I'd I'd say the the biggest
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  area of progress has probably been public awareness.
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  You know, we've seen several
• 4:33
  high profile cases, namely former presidents, including
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  former president Biden as well as former president
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  Jimmy Carter, both of whom,
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  went through
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  and more recently
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  have gone through,
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  radiation treatment as part of their cancer journeys.
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  And, you know, I think our field has
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  done a very good job in really demonstrating
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  the mainstream
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  aspect of radiotherapy,
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  you know, and and and the high quality
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  precise
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  treatment
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  of both primary disease in the body. You
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  know, for instance, prostate cancer for
• 5:13
  president Biden and also for
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  oligometastatic
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  melanoma to the brain that was treated with
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  stereotactic
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  radiotherapy.
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  You know, these types of things,
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  these types of options and improvements in technology
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  have improved the quality of life for
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  those who are, you know, most well known
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  amongst our population.
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  But it's also helped to dispel the myth,
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  that's still prevalent, I'd say. But, you know,
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  the fact that radiation therapy is no longer
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  always associated with terrible side effects like burning,
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  peeling, pain,
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  you know,
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  vast damage to
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  normal tissues all around the target area where
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  we treat these cancers. I think
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  the ability to
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  effectively
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  treat
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  different cancers throughout the body, including the brain,
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  head and neck, spine,
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  liver,
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  lung,
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  bone,
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  prostate,
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  and other areas of the body. You know,
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  the the ability to treat these areas precisely
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  without causing the kinds of side effects that
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  have been traditionally
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  associated with radiotherapy is a huge advancement.
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  And the fact that the public is seeing
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  these
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  advancements on a very,
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  wide, large scale is reassuring to our field,
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  I'd say.
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  Absolutely. Yeah. That kind of that messaging of,
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  oh, radiation, it's gonna
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  be this horrible process and, you know, maybe
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  even some people opting out of it and
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  saying, I don't wanna put myself through that.
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  And now
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  on the flip side of things, that precision
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  treatment, it's not just the precision of the
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  radiation that's being delivered, but how it's being
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  delivered. Right? So I think,
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  as someone who reports in oncology, it's something
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  I read all the time. But like you
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  said to the larger audience of just
• 7:08
  being able to save those healthy tissues and
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  be precise on where it's delivered is
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  is such a big innovation that, hopefully, you
• 7:16
  know, that messaging gets out there.
• 7:18
  Right. Right. Absolutely.
• 7:20
  Thank you.
• 7:21
  Well, great. And I'd love to touch on
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  too,
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  you know, at Presbyterian,
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  the community based practice and and the community
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  that you serve,
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  what are some of their considerations
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  or the unique aspects to delivering care
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  and providing, you know, like we said, those
• 7:37
  precision radiation oncology services within that setting?
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  Yeah. Thanks for that.
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  You know,
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  in our community, we have a large community.
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  And I'd say the most important aspects
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  of what we do is access,
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  technology,
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  expertise,
• 7:59
  and efficiency.
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  You know, we our whole goal is is
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  to
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  treat patients
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  with
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  the highest quality of cancer care, but at
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  the same time, do so in a very
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  efficient manner because the need is so
• 8:17
  great. So as you can imagine,
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  in a state like New Mexico,
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  we see patients
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  from all different backgrounds,
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  from all different areas of the state,
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  and even outside of the state
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  that,
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  some have very complex problems and others have
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  more
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  straightforward problems. But I think the commonality is
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  is that
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  we wanna get these patients treated with the
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  most advanced
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  treatment options, but at the same time
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  without a significant delay.
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  And that requires kind of an understanding and
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  appreciation
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  of of all of the aspects
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  of
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  delivering care in a cost conscious environment. It
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  it
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  it involves an understanding of payer mix,
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  technology,
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  staffing models, population
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  health dynamics, and how trends of
• 9:13
  prevalence of different community based cancers arise,
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  you know, an understanding of integrated health care
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  systems,
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  and probably most of all, creativity in what
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  we do, you know, especially with regards to
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  staffing models,
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  with respect to referral patterns and how we,
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  help to,
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  share
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  the increasing indications for what we do with
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  our referring providers
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  and also the patient population
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  just in general,
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  education for screening, for appropriate screening, and
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  timely treatment.
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  Because as we know, when you catch cancers
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  earlier,
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  they're treated all the more effectively and without
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  side effects and with
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  an expectation of a great outcome.
• 10:02
  Mhmm. So those are things that we focus
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  on in our community.
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  Access
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  access is number one
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  and access
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  to high quality care
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  on a timely basis
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  is most important.
• 10:15
  Perfect. Thank you for laying that out too.
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  I I love that you touched on, you
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  know, access doesn't just mean
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  accessing care, you know, being able to schedule
• 10:23
  appointment. It means all those different factors that
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  you mentioned, payer,
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  considerations,
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  and time, and and all those different,
• 10:33
  you know, sometimes barriers. Right? So,
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  it's always so valuable to hear from someone
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  who's there and and doing the work to
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  to kind of streamline and and find those
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  solutions to providing care access. So thank you
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  for sharing that. And and that's all the
• 10:49
  time we have. So I'd love to thank
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  you for joining me on the podcast today
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  as well. It's been such an informative discussion.
• 10:56
  Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate
• 10:58
  it.
• 10:59
  Alright. And I invite our listeners to tune
• 11:01
  in some more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by
• 11:04
  visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.
• 11:09
  I hope you all have a wonderful rest
• 11:10
  of your day. Thanks.