Integrating Supportive Care Into Everyday Practice

Declan Walsh, MD, spoke about the importance of integrating supportive care into regular check-ins and follow-ups with other oncology specialties. Supportive and palliative care as a field may come in many different forms; Walsh emphasized how important it is for clinicians to know about the benefits and opportunities of this space.

Walsh gave numerous ways on how this specialty can be integrated into everyday care, including being involved in tumor boards and having a comprehensive care team. Additionally, he would like early recognition of a patient’s needs so that supportive care can be brought in at an appropriate time.

Walsh is chair of the Department of Supportive Oncology at Atrium Health Levine Cancer.

Transcript:

[Supportive care is] a 2-way street. Those of us who are interested in providing supportive oncology services should be very willing to engage in the sharp end of cancer care so that we are accessible, we respond quickly, and we are part of the comprehensive clinical care team. [We are] building these ideas into, for example, tumor boards, where at a tumor board meeting, not only is radiation oncology represented in medical oncology but also supportive oncology. We take a comprehensive view of that person’s case and of their management of that disease. Then, from our colleagues’ point of view, whether they’re surgical oncologists or medical oncologists, there’s been a cultural change. People are much more appreciative of the services now and much more understanding of their importance. What we would like to see is early recognition of the patient’s needs by our clinician colleagues so that the supportive oncology services can get in right at the beginning of the illness trajectory [and] we can have the greatest impact and the best collaboration with all our clinical colleagues, irrespective of what their discipline may be.