Transforming the delivery of supportive care for cancer patients

TheoryLab

It is no exaggeration to say that Jennifer Temel, MD, has helped change how cancer care is practiced. Through her research, she has shown that integrating palliative care and oncology care from the time of cancer diagnosis improves patient outcomes. This early integrated care model is now the standard of care in the United States and many other countries. Now, however, because it’s the standard of care, demand for early palliative care is so great that the palliative care workforce is unable to meet every patient’s needs. So Dr. Temel is now working to use novel healthcare technologies—such as telehealth and mobile apps—to deliver patient-centered palliative care to cancer patients and their families everywhere. Jennifer Temel, MD, is an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor. She is Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center. 2:17 – On what motivated her to become an oncologist 3:20 – What is palliative care? How can palliative care differ from the care provided by an oncology clinician? 4:48 – On the importance of early palliative care for patients with serious cancers 7:06 – On her seminal research findings showing that integrating palliative care with oncology care leads to better outcomes 8:32 – How cancer caregivers are impacted by palliative care 10:21 – On how palliative care is typically offered, drawbacks to the current delivery system, and communicating well with patients and their families 16:30 – On being named an ACS Clinical Research Professor 17:40 – On the goals of her ACS-funded work: using healthcare technology to better support and inform cancer patients… 21:25 – …and the three technologies she’s focused on 28:35 – How the pandemic has impacted the need to be innovative in how palliative care is provided 32:49 – How ACS and the cancer community at large can help scale her findings 35:46 – A message she’d like to share with cancer patients and caregivers