Minutes: Treatment Implementation Group
ICC Spring Meeting | Thursday, March 27, 2014
Mercy Medical Center – Cedar Rapids
Attendees: Lynn Arens, Karen Buechler, Carma Herring, Meaghan Rooney, Christy Thurman, Kim Turner, Karen Van De Steeg, Patrick Verdun, George Weiner,
Jamie Wood
Staff: Tina Devery
Topic
Actions
Welcome &
Introductions
FY15 IFP
Updates
Karen welcomed the group and facilitated introductions.
Tina provided a quick overview of the ICC invitation for proposals. The group did not have any questions.
Projects:
 IA Palliative Care Project: Enhancing Clinical Comm. Skills. Christy presented an overview of the upcoming
training session scheduled for June 12 in Iowa City targeting clinicians. She will circulate a flyer in the
event.
 Clinical Trials Awareness coordinated messages- This message set was released on March 26th and is
available for any organization to use or customize to highlight clinical trials for patients. The group
discussed pending Federal grants related to clinical trials- NCORP submitted by Iowa Oncology Research
Alliance and the U10 submitted by the University of Iowa. The group also discussed declining Federal
funding for NCI sponsored clinical trials.
 Radon test kit distribution- The ICC is making radon test kits available to Cancer Centers to use with their
lung cancer patient population or in general for patients to highlight radon in Iowa. Over 10 center s have
elected to receive and distribute the kits.
 Local resources section of the website survey- the local resources section of the ICC website is organized
by county and services provided in several categories. The Google Analytics software does not provide
detailed information related to “hits” in this area of the website so treatment group members and quality
of life members were surveyed about use of the site for patients and providers. If you have social workers
or navigators that regularly use the site, please pass along a copy of the brief survey to your providers. The
results will assist with determining which categories will be kept and maintained going forward.
 Summit speakers- Ganz, CoC surveyor, IPOST- The group discussed Dr. Ganz providing the keynote
address for the 2014 Cancer Summit. They also brainstormed potential breakout session topics. There is
interest in inviting a CoC surveyor to speak. The group also would like to hear from someone nationally on
Affordable Care Act and implications for Cancer Control. Carma will check with someone from ACCC to
inquire about speaker recommendations. Other topics included patient portals. Karen shared Sioux City’s
experience with IPOST- they trained over 80 community members and have many ready to facilitate
discussions and complete the order set, however their community is finding a lack of physican referral and
the average person is taking 2-3 meetings to complete the set. They also tried attaching this to nursing
home admission procedures and have found that to be a difficult time to try to incorporate this initiative.
 2014-2015 Clinical trials capacity building webinar- The group suggested contacting ENACCT for speaker
recommendations (even though the organization has changed). They also thought hearing about
insurance coverage for trials would be a complimentary topic to address. Wellmark has been exemplary
for this. Another option presented was to highlight private sector research like Dr. Chuck Link’s work. This
webinar will be held in April of 2015.
Brainstorm
FY15 Projects
The group discussed the following potential projects:
 FY15 IA Palliative Care Project: Des Moines- Christy is planning to submit the Vitaltalk project and will
coordinate with provider groups in the Des Moines area to structure the event.
 CoC mini grants- Other states in the Midwest region have provided mini grants to Cancer Centers to address
CoC standards improvement projects. The group discussed areas for improvement and 30 day readmissions
was suggested and area to address. There was also a suggestion for working with ONS chapters to reach the
nursing group- there are 4 chapters in Iowa.
Full Group
Next Steps- Submit Letters of Intent (email) to ICC by April 11th for potential projects. Continue to refine project
ideas and complete the full IFP by May 9th, 2014.