that gets stories back from patients who say a mammogram saved their lives,” he said.
CPRIT’s reach Lewis Foxhall, MD, chair of the TMA Physician Oncology Education Program (POEP) Steering Committee and a mem- ber of the TMA Board of Trustees, says the cancer prevention funding from CPRIT is a great resource for the state. He says all physicians, not just research- ers, benefit from the institute’s grant awards. He encourages his colleagues to consider submitting a grant proposal in an area of cancer prevention that inter- ests them. “In general, the grant offerings focus on addressing preventive needs in under- served communities or in those groups
that have an excessive burden of cancer,” Dr. Foxhall said. He says CPRIT’s focus dovetails nicely with the work of POEP, which receives funding from the institute. POEP uses those funds to advance prevention ef- forts in the physician’s practice. (See “POEP Receives CPRIT Funds,” page 36.) “POEP works to improve knowledge
and affect attitudes about cancer pre- vention and treatment among physicians. The program has made an effort to reach out to the primary care community to provide physicians with information and services so clinicians can do a better job of addressing cancer in their patients,” he said.
He adds that CPRIT is interested in supporting projects that will encourage real change in how physicians deliver
cancer care and show a measurable dif- ference at the patient level. One such project involves a POEP initiative to improve the rate of colorectal cancer screening at a federally qualified health center (FQHC) in Conroe. POEP gives the center clinical guidelines on how to approach screenings and how to change its practices to make the screenings ef- fective. The FQHC will measure rates over time to determine whether the in- tervention is working, Dr. Foxhall says. “POEP and CPRIT want to ensure practitioners manage their cancer pa- tients’ care effectively and consistently, and efficiently deliver preventive ser- vices,” he said. The prevention efforts CPRIT funds
A smoking podcast
TMA’s Physician Oncology Education Program (POEP) is using part of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas’ cur- rent prevention funding to develop a podcast on smoking cessa- tion billing codes. TMA has developed a calculator to be featured in the podcast that will help physicians determine how they can get paid for counseling their patients about tobacco cessation. The podcast will launch in August and can be accessed at www
.texmed.org/podcast. The podcast is part of a larger project in collaboration with
TMA’s Council on Health Promotion, the TMA Foundation, and the TMA Alliance. The smoking cessation project targets physicians and their staff members and intends to accomplish four goals:
1. Increase the number of physicians who counsel and educate their patients to never start smoking or to stop smoking.
2. Make more physicians’ offices cancer detection and preven- tion centers by increasing their use of POEP tobacco cessation resources.
3. Improve the health of the population through physician leader- ship in preventing disease and illness for their patients.
4. Create a multiyear strategy to help physicians improve their preventive practices with tobacco control through evidence- based education from POEP to promote use of codes to pay for tobacco counseling.
34 TEXAS MEDICINE July 2011
could influence how physicians evaluate and treat their cancer patients, Dr. Gar- cia says. CPRIT funds public and profes- sional education, clinical services, and policy and systems change. “Prevention funds will allow CPRIT to focus on delivering more professional education and training in Texas. We know health care professionals are such an important part of prevention. One of the strongest predictors of whether a person will receive a screening, quit smoking, or take preventive action is if a health care professional recommends it,” she said. (See “A Smoking Podcast,” at left.) Joseph Bailes, MD, an Austin oncolo- gist and TMA member and vice chair of the CPRIT Oversight Committee, says physicians in research and academia aren’t the only ones who can benefit from CPRIT’s work. For example, CPRIT devoted more than $25 million to estab- lish the Statewide Clinical Trials Net- work of Texas. Dr. Bailes says academic institutions and community oncologists alike are part of the network and collab- orate to enhance the local availability of cancer-related clinical trials for Texans. The network, which received funding
in June 2010, is a conduit for academic researchers, community physicians, bio- technology companies, and pharmaceu- tical firms to increase the pace of clinical oncology research by testing novel con- cepts, drugs, diagnostics, and medical devices, while providing Texas patients access to state-of-the art treatment.
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