You Can Become a Breast Cancer Expert
Breast cancer care is complicated and is advancing by leaps and bounds every day. This is the high-quality care you hear about on TV and read about online. But unfortunately, there can be barriers between you and quality of care in local communities. The Breast Cancer School for Patients was created to begin a “Patient-Driven Quality Movement” in the area of breast cancer. Only when well informed will you make sure you are receiving optimal care for your unique condition.
What is “Quality” Breast Cancer Care?
Cutting-edge advances are an important part of receiving the very best care. For example, it is quite common for patients to not be offered genetic testing and genomic assays. Quality care requires dedicated breast physicians, access to cutting-edge technologies and an informed patient working with their breast cancer team.
Your goal is to get only the specific treatments you need to get the best outcome while avoiding over-treatment. Learn more about “Quality Breast Cancer Care“ (here).
Why Should Patients Proactively Seek Quality Cancer Care?
Despite best efforts, the medical community sometimes doesn’t do enough to guide patients about how to get the very best care. The Breast Cancer School for Patients was created to fill this patient information gap and specifically teach you to be your own self-advocate.
Receiving the best care requires a close, long-term relationship with your physicians. Asking great questions engages your doctors about who you are and what your needs are. This is the best way to work together to make the best treatment decisions.
What barriers exist to quality cancer care?
Traditionally, breast cancer treatment is a physician-to-patient flow of information and physician-directed decision making. One barrier that exists is that new advances in imaging, genetics, genomics, and treatments can take years to filter to and be implemented by breast cancer physicians. Another barrier is that your physicians are human. They can have a bad day where they are pressed for time, running late seeing patients, or distracted by emergencies in the hospital. This can lead your breast specialists to forget to ask you important questions or order a test that could have helped with your care.
This is why patient-driven care can make sure everything is on the table when you make key treatment decisions. You should know exactly what is going on and what questions to ask. The Breast Cancer School for Patients has organized the important topics and treatment choices you will face. We provide you essential course notes and questions to ask doctors in their language.
Register for our newsletter & “Cutting Edge” questions
Sign-up for our “Breast Health Updates & Latest Videos“ (here). Once registered, we’ll immediately email you our complete list of “Cutting Edge” questions to engage your breast surgeon, medical oncologist, and radiation oncologist. We help you get quality breast cancer care in your community.
