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CHICAGO — Philip Hutchison, DO, FACS, of Bellevue, recently received a three-year appointment as Cancer Liaison Physician for the Hospital Cancer Program at The Bellevue Hospital. The Cancer Liaison Physician Program is an integral part of the Commission on Cancer (CoC) of the American College of Surgeons.

Dr. Hutchison is among a national network of over 1,600 volunteer Cancer Liaison Physicians who provide leadership and support to the CoC Approvals Program, and other Commission on Cancer activities at their local facility.

Dr. Hutchison, who has a significant interest in the diagnosis and treatment of patients with malignant diseases, provides direction as a member of the multidisciplinary cancer committee at his/her institution in order to maintain or seek CoC approval of their cancer program.

The Commission on Cancer is a consortium of professional organizations dedicated to reducing the morbidity and mortality of cancer through education, standard-setting, and monitoring the quality of cancer care.

Its membership includes Fellows of the American College of Surgeons and 40 national organizations that reflect the full spectrum of cancer care.

The commission’s core functions include setting standards for quality, multidisciplinary cancer patient care, surveying those facilities to evaluate compliance with the 36 CoC standards, collecting standardized and quality data from approved facilities, and using the data to develop effective educational interventions to improve cancer care outcomes at the national, state, and local level.

Twenty-five percent of the hospitals in the United States have cancer programs approved by the Commission on Cancer and 80 percent of newly diagnosed cancer patients are treated in these institutions.

Cancer Liaison Physicians are responsible for fostering and communicating CoC initiatives at the facility level and for coordinating community outreach activities in conjunction with the cancer committee.

As Community Outreach Coordinator, the Cancer Physician Liaison develops goals for the cancer program to include the provision of support services and prevention and early detection programs to the community, works with the local American Cancer Society on strategies to accomplish community outreach goals and other cancer control projects of interest to the facility, and utilizes facility cancer patient data submitted to the Commission on Cancer’s National Cancer Database (NCDB).

 Data received from the 1,400 plus Commission on Cancer-approved cancer programs are aggregated and reported back to the individual facilities to assist them in studying patterns of care and identifying quality improvement initiatives to address gaps in cancer care.

The NCDB currently contains patient demographics, tumor characteristics, treatment, and outcomes information for over 15 million malignant cancers, diagnosed and treated at hospital cancer programs in the United States between 1985 and 2002.

These data account for approximately two-thirds of newly diagnosed cancers in the U.S. each year. The Cancer Liaison Physician cooperates regularly with this program in the submission, presentation, use, and interpretation of reports. His or her participation in this program and sharing this data with the cancer committee can positively impact cancer patient care at their facility.

In an effort to assist the more than 1.3 million Americans diagnosed with cancer each year, Cancer Liaison Physicians at CoC-approved facilities participation in the commission’s Facility Information Profile System (FIPS). FIPS is a data-sharing project between the Commission on Cancer and the American Cancer Society, which provides the public with information on facilities’ resources, services, and cancer experience.

These data are shared with the public through the ACS National Call Center and website at 1-800-ACS-2345/www.cancer.org.

For more information on the Cancer Liaison Program and the Commission on Cancer, please contact the Commission on Cancer at the American College of Surgeons, 633 N. Saint Clair St., Chicago IL 60611, 312-202-5085 or visit our website at http://www.facs .org/cancer/index.html.
 

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The Bellevue Hospital, 1400 W. Main Street - P O Box 8004, Bellevue, Ohio  44811-8004    419-483-4040
Last modified: 10/10/05