Case study

Guidelines for navify® Tumor Board

National Comprehensive Cancer Network Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®)

When Sheryl Greer began her role as cancer center coordinator at a 67-bed acute care facility in the Pacific Northwest, the clinical team relied on a range of ways to gather and present tumor board data. Through Sheryl’s leadership, the tumor board process has evolved to engage attendees with a robust, reliable reporting process—including the latest guidelines and pathways.

“It’s much easier navigating through the guidelines within navify Tumor Board I can count on having the most updated data right at my fingertips. This saves me significant time and effort. As a clinical tool, navify Tumor Board is invaluable.”

Sheryl Greer, CTR, Cancer Conference Coordinator

Problem

Greer recalls a time when tumor board reports were created in word processing software, as a spreadsheet or even hand written. Each looked different from the other and there was no way to be confident the right data was assembled to help the decision team determine the most appropriate treatment path. In addition, checking against National Comprehensive Cancer Network Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology (NCCN Guidelines®) recommendations meant going to the NCCN Guidelines® website to manually track each step using the PDF f iles. It took a significant amount of time to research and review the recommendations. Greer’s experience in attempting to synthesize guidelines data into the tumor board reports is not surprising. A JAMA research article noted that the NCCN Guidelines have expanded exponentially over the past two decades. Specifically: the complexity and length of the guidelines grew by 7.6 fold or 760%; the average decision paths increased from 30 to 111.1

Solution

Greer learned about navify Tumor Board and quickly recognized its strategic ability to alleviate the issues she and her colleagues had experienced—particularly the Guidelines app. This is part of the Clinical Decision Support module that comes with navify Tumor Board and is designed to streamline access to the latest clinical oncology guidelines and pathways. Shortly after navify Tumor Board was in place, Greer recognized how easy it was to access and document evidence- and consensus-based guidelines.

Results

  • Users document guidelines discussions during tumor boards, making it easy to conform with American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer requirements
  • Reduces preparation time and guidelines documentation compared to the previous means of report development
  • Increases tumor board attendance and inspires greater physician participation

“ In the past, there was no organized, fast way to find relevant guidelines. Now, with navify Tumor Board, the clinical guidelines and pathways are all in one place. This simplifies adherence tracking and reporting for accreditation, too.”

Sheryl Greer, CTR, Cancer Conference Coordinator

Streamline guidelines lookup and reporting to reduce time and increase adherence

Where Greer once had to follow multiple steps to identify relevant guidelines and pathways, now navify Tumor Board enables her to quickly assimilate the appropriate data. navify Tumor Board offers a configuration module that enables an organization to digitize and publish custom institutional guidelines. The documentation can also be enhanced with the Quality Insights Reporting feature. This supports guideline adherence, identifies treatment path care variations and reduces the burden of collecting paper-based records.

See relevant guidelines based on the patient’s clinical information

Follow a step progression or decision tree to ensure diagnostic steps are not missed, based on guideline recommendations

By using tools within the software:

Communicate diagnostics and treatment decisions with the entire tumor board team and ancillary staff (including the referring physician, second-opinion physicians, billing and accreditation administrators)

Create an exception by entering an alternative treatment and the reason for going off pathway

Guidelines for navify Tumor Board

Clinicians log-in to navify Tumor Board, patient Cancer Info, click on Guidelines module

Clinicians navigate through Guidelines step-by-step

Clinicians pin the relevant part and save, which can be printed or submitted to payers

Simplify guidelines data gathering, accelerate decision making

For Greer and her colleagues, the guidelines adherence process has been elevated, further empowering the organization’s ability to provide timely, effective cancer care

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1. Kann, et.al, JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(3):e200841. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2020.0841