CAZENOVIA – On September 23, the Cazenovia-based nonprofit National Community Oncology Dispensing Association, Inc. (NCODA) will present its first annual Driving Cancer Care Forward “Passion Fore Patients” golf tournament at Cazenovia County Club at 3711 Number Nine Route.
A shootout is scheduled for 8:30 a.m.
Tickets are $125 per individual player and $500 per four-person team.
The event will also include a post-competition clubhouse lunch, raffles, silent auctions and a putting contest.
NCODA is a grassroots organization committed to helping “medically integrated oncology teams” deliver patient-centered care by providing leadership, expertise, quality standards, and best practices.
According to NCODA Founder and Executive Director Michael Reff, RPh, MBA, a medically integrated oncology team within a practice or facility consists of physicians, advanced practice providers, including assistants doctors or nurse practitioners, pharmacists, nurses, technicians, etc. who work together to provide optimal patient care following a cancer diagnosis.
A central aspect of NCODA’s work is to support cancer care professionals in the medically integrated delivery [MID] cancer therapies.
MID is a model in which patients’ oral cancer prescriptions are filled and dispensed by a pharmacy located in the oncology center where they receive care, rather than through mail-order pharmacies.
In 2020, NCODA conclusively defined MID Pharmacy as “a dispensing pharmacy within an oncology center of excellence that promotes a patient-centered, multidisciplinary team approach. The [MID] is a collaborative and comprehensive outcomes-based model that involves oncology healthcare professionals and other stakeholders who focus on the continuity of quality coordinated care and therapies for cancer patients.
NCODA believes that, when performed correctly, LLIN offers multiple advantages over alternative methods, including mail-order (“specialty”) pharmacies. For example, under the MID model, medically integrated teams can communicate effectively, eliminating ambiguity; healthcare providers can easily access a patient’s medical records to help prescribers make more informed decisions; cancer centers can work with the payer/employer group to ensure cost savings and improve patient satisfaction; cancer centers can prevent the delivery of unnecessary drugs to patients, reducing waste and saving money for patients and the healthcare system; the LLIN service can better track medications and support continuity of care; the pharmacist and patient care team can better communicate with the patient and engage with them in managing their side effects, financial assistance, and overall care.
According to NCODA, the improved care that results from MID results in substantial cost savings, timely issuance of correct prescriptions, improved patient adherence to medications, and maximized patient satisfaction and beneficial outcomes.
Reff, a Cazenovia resident, started NCODA as a nonprofit in 2015.
“After leading the development of a medically integrated pharmacy (The Patient Rx Center) at Hematology Oncology Associates of Central New York in Syracuse, I realized that the cancer care community needed an organization to develop standardized resources focused on healthcare professionals and patients,” says Reff. “Clinical fragmentation in oncology often results in myriad complications for patients, including delayed treatment. My mission in starting NCODA was to straighten out the industry and help cancer centers better manage their patients, so they get the right treatment at the right time.
The organization has grown from just two employees in 2015 to 24 employees in 2022; nine of the employees are employed locally at NCODA’s 9 Albany St. office and others work remotely from the Albany area, Oklahoma, Colorado, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Washington, Florida, La Virginia and Alabama.
NCODA began by developing a set of quality standards for cancer centers, then expanded that work by creating and expanding the “Going Beyond the First Fill” model for the distribution of oral cancer drugs.
According to Reff, NCODA coined the phrase/methodology Going Beyond the First Fill when it helped several of its member cancer centers in New York, New Jersey, South Carolina, and Utah get the right from health insurance companies. to maintain the distribution of anti orals. – anticancer drugs in their MID pharmacies beyond the traditionally authorized first filling.
” Essentially, [MID] pharmacies prove their value to health insurance companies through better patient management and cost savings to the healthcare system, and [thus] earn the right to allow the patient to refill their cancer drugs within the integrated pharmacy, as opposed to the traditionally mandatory method of refilling through a large [pharmacy benefit manager-owned] mail-order pharmacy. This improves speed of treatment, overall compliance and coordination of care.
Today, NCODA members include nurses, pharmacists, physicians, advanced practice providers, administrators, pharmacy technicians, directors, managers, patient advocates, and financial support staff. Together, members are part of an international community of healthcare professionals who work with MID pharmacy teams to provide tools and resources that support better patient care.
According to Reff, NCODA supports its members primarily through education and sharing quality standards.
NCODA provides many complementary resources to its members, including educational webinars, international in-person meetings several times a year, NCODA Quality Standards (in conjunction with the American Society of Clinical Oncology), operating procedure documents called Positive Quality Interventions (PQIs), patient and healthcare professional education sheets on oral and IV cancer drugs, the oncology trade journal “Oncolytics Today”, oncology legislative updates, a community for peer-to-peer mentorship and sharing of critical oncology updates, and tools for patient support and data reporting (e.g. cost and waste tracker tool and financial aid ).
The organization continues to expand its reach to include healthcare students by establishing its international Professional Student Organization (PSO) chapters in Schools/Colleges of Pharmacy. PSOs provide an opportunity for pharmacy students to learn more about the field of oncology and network with like-minded students from around the world.
“Based on years of research, NCODA has learned that oncology is a therapeutic area in which pharmacy students in the United States and abroad do not receive much training before graduation” , explained Reff. “NCODA saw this as an opportunity to fill the void, supporting the development of oncology students from a patient-centered approach. . . Our goal is to empower future leaders in oncology.
NCODA serves its 50 established PSO Chapters through in-person and virtual education, mentorship, and networking opportunities.
All proceeds from the Driving Cancer Care Forward Golf Tournament will support NCODA’s continued student professional development initiatives, such as its PSO Chapters, Cazenovia High School Scholarship, and opportunities for US pharmacy students. and Canada to work alongside its clinical teams. members of the pharmacist team to develop resources and tools for oncology patients.
The NCODA Cazenovia High School Scholarship awards $500 to students interested in the field of oncology. Since its inception in 2020, the scholarship has been awarded to three students.
The organization’s student-led oncology patient education resources include the PQI, treatment support kits, legislative oncology tracking, cancer screening resources, a national bone marrow registry, and professional articles focused on training pharmacy technicians on cancer drugs.
Learn more about the NCODA Driving Cancer Care Forward Golf Tournament or register at ncoda.org/driving-cancer-care-forward/.