Dr CS Pramesh – Coordinator National Cancer Grid
Expert Oncologists from Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) and National Cancer Grid (NCG) Use Navya to Provide Rapid Online Opinions to Patients across 22 Developing Countries
The results of a prospective study presented at the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting demonstrates the global impact of an informatics-based scalable and low cost online service to maximize outcomes for patients in areas without ready access to expertise
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., MUMBAI, India and Chicago, Ill. – June 5, 2017: “TMC NCG Navya Online” provides multidisciplinary evidence based expert opinions within 24 hours to thousands of cancer patients in urban and non urban areas in the developing world. A prospective study assessing the real world impact of this service concluded that patients shared the expert opinions with their treating providers and received evidence-based treatment. Expanding the service to non urban USA and the western world, can maximize cancer care outcomes, globally.
There is a scarcity of expert oncologists in the world. Patients in non urban areas have poor access to evidence-based treatment decisions and worse outcomes. In India, there are circa 1600 oncologists for 1.8 million patients and the lack of expertise translates to suboptimal and expensive treatment decisions. Navya’s informatics based expert opinion service, scalably provides multidisciplinary evidence based treatment opinions on-time, empowering every patient.
Since its creation in 2014, 10,779 patients from 22 developing countries have registered with TMC NCG Navya Online. The technology based operation with a median turnaround time of 24 hours, consists of clinical analysts who collect patient data and an informatics system that generates patient-specific evidence-based treatment options. Experts take into account patient preferences and rapidly review and vet the options within 1-2 minutes on the mobile ExpertApp. The system generates a consensus multidisciplinary treatment decision and analysts create an expert opinion report in simple layman language which is sent to the patient online.
“The online expert opinion service is a game changer for regions where the demand for cancer expertise far outstrips supply, by democratizing access. This has enabled proliferation of standardized evidence based treatment recommendations for patients who lack the access to tertiary care centers and thereby expertise” said Dr Pramesh, Coordinator National Cancer Grid, the world’s largest consortium of 108 cancer centers in India. Dr Pramesh made an oral presentation of this abstract at ASCO on the 5th of June, 2017.
The study included 914 patients who registered with the service between July 2016 and March 2017 and were asked via phone follow up: 1. If report was shared with treating provider, 2. Final treatments received. Of the 90% of patients who responded (n=824), 72.3% [CI 3.05%] of patients shared the Expert Opinion Reports with their treating oncologists. 78% [CI 2.95%] of patients received treatments recommended by TMC NCG Navya. Common reasons why patients received different treatments included decline in performance status after receiving the online opinion and not testing for biomarkers (Estrogen Receptor/Progesterone Receptor, etc.), likely due to lack of access to resources.
“The finding that a high proportion of the patients are sharing the reports with their treating oncologist and most proceed treatments that TMC and NCG experts would recommend, demonstrates that the online service has wide approval both among patients as well as local physicians and oncologists” said Dr Rajendra Badwe, Director of Tata Memorial Centre, one of Asia’s largest leading tertiary care cancer centers.
Says Gitika Srivastava, Founder of Navya: “Navya’s vision is to meaningfully move the needle in the way cancer care is delivered. This study shows that the informatics based system and service is scaleable and has positively impacted patients from all over the developing world. Expanding the reach of this service can maximize outcomes for patients, especially those in non urban areas, across the world.”
National Cancer Grid (NCG), tmc.gov.in/ncg Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) tmc.gov.in
The NCG is a consortium of 108 cancer centers, with a mandate to standardize cancer care, nationally. NCG is the largest global network of cancer centers collaborating to use technology and training to bring cancer expertise to every oncologist and cancer patient in India. TMC is Asia’s largest leading tertiary care expert cancer center, seeing over 67,000 cancer patients every year. Its strength necessitates a responsibility to make its expertise available to patients across India and developing countries, especially those who reside in locations where there are no expert cancer care centers.
Navya http://www.navya.info
Navya is a clinical informatics and patient services organization with a unique understanding of cancer patients and oncologists and a core commitment to cancer care. With a proven track record of successfully implementing innovative solutions that are low cost and effective, Navya is the first to develop an end to end expert decision system for use by cancer patients and oncologists globally. Navya’s online expert opinion service is also the first of its kind to offer evidence based opinions from world leading experts at low cost, answering every single question of the patient, within 24 hours.
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Contact: Gitika Srivastava | gitika@post.harvard.edu
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