As the latest practice to join the OneOncology partnership, their first Leadership Summit meeting last month offered me a great opportunity to dive into relevant – and practice transforming – clinical and operations content.

When I first examined the meeting’s agenda, I thought it looked ambitious. Thirty-six hours later, I was gratified by not only what we covered in the meeting, but by the connections I made in just one weekend.

In the five months since Oncology Specialists of Charlotte has been on the platform, the deepest impression I’ve formed about OneOncology is this: It’s not just talk, it’s action.

The offerings that OneOncology has put in place for its practice partners holistically address the clinical, operational, and competitive challenges and opportunities each community practice confronts at home. And their team is our true partner at every step – not just with advice but roll-up-your-sleeves, hands-on action. The first Leadership Summit was no different. 

Here are my top take aways from the recent meeting:

1. Value-Based Care: We're using OneOncology's expertise to help us formulate value-based care models with insurance companies, potentially self-insured companies, and to prepare for Medicare’s EOM. The technology, analytics and experience OneOncology and practice leaders continually share about risk-based models will enhance our practice by allowing us to work with emerging payment models. Having the expertise on hand, like we did in Dallas, to think about these models is extremely helpful. But having talent to help develop an action plan and engage private payers, like we’re doing now with North Carolina Blue Cross Blue Shield, is a differentiator and an amazing added value.

2. Technology and Data Analytics: Using OneOncology-developed technology that incorporates into our EMR to allow us to gather and prove our quality of care is something we couldn’t have done on our own. By working with the Analytics Teams to develop models that examine quality metrics – from patient satisfaction to NCCN concordance – as well as utilizing technology to gather claims data, OneOncology generates the evidence we’re taking to payers that demonstrates the high-quality and better-value care that we deliver. OneOncology’s technology and analytics are a huge asset to our practice, and the sessions at the meeting emphasized their value.

3. Clinical Trials: It is exciting to be able to work with OneOncology to enroll patients at our practice in OneR clinical trials, thereby expanding access to novel therapies in Charlotte. And we’re looking towards doing Phase 1 clinical trials. Bringing those opportunities to our patients is extremely exciting. Connecting with other practices that have Phase 1 programs brought insights that would have taken more time to uncover without OneOncology serving as connective tissue between practices.

4. Cell-Mediated Therapies and Pharmacy Support: The discussions addressing how to bring novel therapies, such as BiTE and CAR-T therapies, into a practice were excellent information sources. OneOncology’s pharmacy support, led by Lisa Raff, PharmD, MSPharm, BCPS, BCOP, is an amazing resource for pharmacy. Getting hands-on pharmacy-support assistance from Lisa Raff and clinical operations makes us more efficient and better able to deliver quality care.

5. Growth and Physician Recruitment: We’re looking to grow into new markets and having the capital to realize our growth plans is an incredible resource. Having the OneOncology Physician Recruitment Team engaged with our practice is also a huge asset for us. With OneOncology, we have new doctors, we have capital for growth, and we have legal support to help us with onboarding new physicians.

6. Regulatory Assistance: There are so many facets to running a successful private practice, including all the changing rules and laws regarding reimbursement, coding, and documentation. OneOncology covers all the bases in their offering to practices, and the Dallas meeting brought new insights on regulatory assistance and legislative advocacy that benefit practices.

Woven throughout all the sessions was comradery with other doctors and practice leaders. Having a forum to work alongside other oncology practices to understand what they're going through and comparing notes for addressing hospital-based competition and growing our practices, is extremely valuable.

The challenges to run a practice that successful competes with hospital oncology programs are numerous. But with OneOncology as an action-oriented partner, I’ve never been more excited about our future – for our practice, physicians, staff and most importantly patients who entrust us with their care.