ACCC Announces 2024 Innovator Award Winners: Six Innovative and Replicable Solutions This Year in Cancer Care

ROCKVILLE, MD - The Association of Cancer Care Centers (ACCC) today announced the winning cancer care programs for its 14th annual ACCC Innovator Awards. The awards recognize innovative and replicable solutions for oncology care from cancer centers nationwide.

The 2024 Innovator Award winners feature visionary approaches to cancer care, such as new bispecific therapy programs, models for improved cancer diagnosis and detection, EHR integration, and innovative tracking and management tools. Winners will present the details of their programs, including how-to discussions and findings, to attendees at the ACCC 41st National Oncology Conference, held October 9 -11, 2024, in Minneapolis, MN.

“The oncology community is out there, every single day, identifying problems and developing highly creative solutions to better assist their patients. The ACCC Innovator Awards are meant to not only recognize these efforts, but also provide an opportunity for other cancer programs to learn and replicate cutting-edge ideas for the benefit of more patients.” said Nadine Barrett, PhD, MA, MPH, ACCC President.

The ACCC 2024 Innovator Award Winners:

Mercy, Mercy Oncology Services
Saint Louis, Missouri

Smart-Texting High-Risk Patients After Chemotherapy Reduces ED Visits

This machine learning algorithm runs nightly and is linked to a smart texting application that goes out to patients every morning for 7 days following chemotherapy, asking about symptoms like diarrhea, fever, nausea, vomiting, and pain. Patients reporting severe or worsening symptoms have the smart text escalated to the oncology clinic where they received chemotherapy. Initial analysis broken down by responders (those that opted in and answered the daily text messages) and non-responders (opted out or opted in but did not answer the texts) found that ED visits were 5.7% for responders compared to 6.7% for non-responders. Across the health system, about 30 responders are added daily to the program.

Munson Healthcare, Cowell Family Cancer Center
Traverse City, Michigan

Implementation of a Bispecific T-Cell Engager Therapy Program at a Community Cancer Center

Development of this comprehensive bispecific antibody program included policy development; toxicity management; creation of patient and staff education documents; creation of clinician tools like a toxicity scoring and charting tool and an electronic order set that segregates treatment options; and a monitoring system to safely transition patients from inpatient to outpatient care.

RWJBarnabas Health, Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey, Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center
Livingston, New Jersey

A Sustainable Model for Improved Quality for Pancreatic Cyst Surveillance and Early Pancreatic Cancer Detection

This AI-driven incidental findings program identifies and then monitors pancreatic abnormalities to improve the quality of care to patients who are at increased risk for developing pancreatic cancer. To do so, the patient management software integrates with the electronic health record and facilitates patient identification, risk assessment, care plan tracking, patient and provider communication, outcomes recording, and registry functionality. In the 2 years following program implementation, 82 pancreatic cancers were detected from incidental findings with 65% of patients being diagnosed in earlier stages (stages I, II, and II), as well as instances of ampullary cancer, gallbladder cancer, and gastric cancer.

St. Luke's University Health Network, St. Luke's Cancer Care
Easton, Pennsylvania

A One-Stop Breast Clinic Improves Time to Diagnosis and Patient Satisfaction

This accelerated delivery platform improves clinic workflow and speeds up breast cancer diagnosis and treatment planning. From screening mammogram, a clinical pathway flags patients who meet One-Stop Breast Clinic criteria, eliminating the traditional “first come, first served” scheduling model. To date, more than 300 patients have benefited from this rapid diagnostic approach, receiving their diagnosis in 3 to 7 days, far below the national average of 26 days.

The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute
Columbus, Ohio

Leveraging the EHR to Automate Biosimilar Selection and Streamline the Prior Authorization Process

This rule-based informatics solution pulls from the electronic health record to automate the election of an appropriate biosimilar therapy based on the patient’s insurance and hospital formulary preferences, streamlining prior authorization and approval processes. This e-tool decreased administrative burden to providers, pharmacists, and prior authorization specialists and increased biosimilar utilization by 21.9%.

University of Colorado – UCHealth, University of Colorado Cancer Center
Aurora, Colorado

Creating a Community-Wide Safety Net for Centralized Tracking and Management of Incidental Lung Nodule Findings

Enterprise intelligence software analyzes imaging results of all patients treated at UCHealth to identify and stratify those with high-risk findings. When a concerning abnormality is found, patients and providers are alerted to the finding, and patients are referred for additional follow-up. After this system-wide approach led to a 2,514% increase in actively managed patients, a centralized care management function was implemented to streamline processes, reducing the time-to recommend next steps from 34 to 5 days.

More information about the individual programs can be found on the ACCCBuzz blog.