Guidelines are essential to improving clinical outcomes in breast cancer patients

Excerpt

Among the estimated $3.08 trillion (18 % US GDP) [1], we will have spent this year in the U.S. on healthcare, a great deal of this is due to what is termed “unexplained clinical variation” [2]. This great variation of care is a major obstacle to improving quality and safety in health care, therefore finding ways to reduce it are necessary to successfully bend the cost curve in health care. While oncology encompasses a small fraction of the overall health costs, it represents one of the most rapidly increasing segments [3]. The Institute for Health Improvement has articulated a framework, known as the “triple aim” to reduce clinical variation and help optimize health system performance [4]. In order to make necessary changes to our current health care system, three distinct but interrelated areas need to be simultaneously addressed. These are as follows: (i) improve the health of populations; (ii) improve the patient experience of care (including quality and satisfaction); and, (iii) reducing the per capita cost of health care. …