Meeting Retrospective: Defining Quality and Value in Stem Cell Transplant 2014 Forum

Title: Meeting Retrospective: Defining Quality and Value in Stem Cell Transplant 2014 Forum

Authors: Stephanie Farnia, MPH and Alicia Silver, MPP

In July 2014, the National Marrow Donor Program/ Be The Match's (NMDP) Advisory Group on Financial Barriers to Transplant convened a working forum in Minneapolis, MN attended by over 100 stem cell transplant (SCT) community representatives. Forum participants included transplant center medical and program directors, national payers and reinsurers and leadership from the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT), the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplant (ASBMT) and the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant (CIBMTR). Speakers at the forum discussed their perspectives on how the SCT field can develop approaches to measure quality and improve value for patients. At the conclusion of the forum many recommendations for the SCT community emerged through several roundtable and full group discussions. (1)  The SCT community needs to develop a stronger relationship with referring physicians to ensure timely patient referral to transplant which is associated with better outcomes. Early referral could serve as a quality metric for the hematologic community tied to the patient's overall care experience. Payer engagement in referral timing is an underutilized potential resource. (2) Leverage data available to transplant centers from the CIBMTR's Stem Cell Transplant Outcomes Database (SCTOD) to identify utilization patterns that need further study. (3) SCT community leadership and organizations should develop a venue for on-going dissemination and discussion of promising care in SCT that take into account FACT findings, SCTOD analysis and ASBMT guidelines for overall quality improvement. (4) Develop draft SCT quality measures and test them among transplant centers. (5) Identify components of quality measurement in SCT that would be appropriate for use in quality or outcome based reimbursement models. (6) Engage other communities in the quality measure development process including the physician societies like the American Society of Hematology and the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the National Quality Forum as well as employers, patients, pharmaceutical manufactures and hospital level administrators and Chief Financial Officers. Forum participants found the meeting to be very engaging and useful for their daily work in the SCT field. A follow-up meeting is scheduled for July 2015 in Minneapolis, MN where community speakers will present updates on quality measure development.