THE “NEW” PROSTATE CANCER INFOLINK

Penson has recently reviewed available data on the methods use to assess the quality of care, the available quality measures in prostate cancer, and the existing literature on the quality of prostate cancer care in the USA.

He describes a preliminary performance measure set initially developed by RAND Corporation researchers that were tested in multiple settings. In combination with various clinical guidelines, the RAND measures have been used as the foundation for new prostate cancer quality measures developed by the American Medical Association’s Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement.

According to Penson, “Recent studies document that patients undergoing radical prostatectomy had worse documented compliance with quality indicators than those undergoing external beam radiotherapy.” He goes on to state that, “There is clearly room for improvement in prostate cancer quality of care in the US. If providers do not take the initiative and address these shortcomings, providers and policymakers will implement changes that may not be in the best interests of patients.”

This conclusion appears somewhat strange to The “New” Prostate Cancer InfoLink. It seems more likely to us that any changes would be implemented by payers and policy makers and would be more likely to focus on documented ability to provide care at centers of excellence. While this might impact patients, it is more likely to impact the providers who provide lower (or even poor) quality of care. Elimination of low and poor quality care, however, would very definitely be in the longer term interests of patients!