Healthcare

In recent years, the ability to select cancer treatments that are targeted to specific characteristics of each patient’s disease has extended the lives of those with cancer and revolutionized the field. In the early to mid-2010s, as these targeted therapies first became more prevalent, stakeholders grappled with whether the US healthcare system was sufficiently prepared for the new precision medicine paradigm in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Building from our work bringing together diverse healthcare stakeholders in Europe, Tapestry Networks launched the Sustainable Predictive Oncology Therapeutics and Diagnostics (SPOT/Dx) Working Group in the United States in 2013 to address the advent of advanced diagnostics in cancer and identify gaps inhibiting the effective uptake of precision approaches in oncology.

SPOT/Dx ran from 2013-2015 and resulted in two key outcomes:

• The Diagnostic Quality Assurance Pilot, which piloted a new approach to molecular diagnostic quality assurance
• A focused summit on better integrating genomics into clinical practice

Today, former SPOT/dx participants frequently underscore the value of the forum in having convened diverse, senior-level leaders from academia, pathology, government, insurance, drug development, and others to identify critical challenges in precision oncology during a formative time for the field.