Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast.
I'm Elizabeth Gregersen, a reporter here at Becker's,
and I'm thrilled to interview
doctor Amit Garg,
medical director of radiation oncology at Presbyterian
and quality officer of the cancer program
on our podcast today.
Thank you so much for joining me. I'm
very grateful to share your insights with our
podcast audience.
Good morning. It's great to be here. Thanks
for having me. Perfect. Before we dive in,
could you take some time to just introduce
yourself and maybe tell us a little bit
about your organization?
Oh, sure. Yeah.
My name is Amit Garg.
I am very grateful to be practicing
in
a very large community based setting here in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, where we serve
a very large under
underrepresented
community with regards to
cancer care in general,
but also,
more at large with regards to health care
access
as well quality, you know. So it's, it's
really nice to be practicing here. My background,
I I grew up in Houston and and
was trained mostly
in Houston.
I went to residency at MD Anderson Cancer.
A wonderful experience. I joined the faculty,
after that and practiced
in this community for,
fourteen
years as a faculty member of MD Anderson.
And then about, two or three years ago,
we were acquired by our local
hospital system, Presbyterian Healthcare Services, where I've been
practicing
for the past fifteen plus years,
in the setting.
Perfect. Well, I appreciate you taking the time
to, speak with us today and to kinda
share your insights to our larger Becker's audience.
You know, our listeners
won't just be from the field of oncology,
so it's always kind of nice to be
able to share
with hospital and health system leaders, you know,
from the c suite to other specialties to
to across the care continuum,
what's happening. So
I think to get us started, I'd love
to just hear maybe the major trends or
innovations
that you're following right now when it comes
to radiation oncology that maybe our listeners should
be aware of as well.
Yeah. Sure. Absolutely. I appreciate that question because
it kinda speaks to
where things are going in our field and
trends in general
with cancer care. And I think when you
look at the big picture,
probably the most important trend
is that the indications
for,
you know, precise
radiation therapy
are continuing to rise.
So, you know,
there's a focus on quality of life as
well as length of life.
And what's being shown
is that precision radiotherapy,
such as in the form of stereotactic
body radiotherapy,
but also other types,
are increasingly
used
to maintain quality of life, to actually improve
quality of life in those patients who are
symptomatic, but also patients
who are treated aggressively
and also lengthen life.
And, you know, what what that's kind of
done over the past,
I'd say, one to two decades
is it's really given clinicians and patients more
options with regards to their cancer care.
And
it it's allowed us to be more aggressive
in how we manage cancers. And
and, of course, patients are living longer, and
that's the other. You know, patients are living
a lot longer. So as they live longer
with advancements in heart disease and
other
other treatments for other types of diseases, it's
made
the treatment the precise treatment of cancer care
all the more important
in order to maintain quality of life and
length of life.
Perfect. And, you know, I'd love to build
on that just a little bit.
Quality of life and length of life, Those
precision treatments obviously are such a major achievement
and and, like you said, over the past
two decades, such a testament to the progress
that's been made. Is there anything that's happened
maybe in the past six, twelve, eighteen months
that has stood out most to you in
radiation oncology or cancer care in general?
Gosh. Yeah. Over that time frame,
you know, I'd I'd say the the biggest
area of progress has probably been public awareness.
You know, we've seen several
high profile cases, namely former presidents, including
former president Biden as well as former president
Jimmy Carter, both of whom,
went through
and more recently
have gone through,
radiation treatment as part of their cancer journeys.
And, you know, I think our field has
done a very good job in really demonstrating
the mainstream
aspect of radiotherapy,
you know, and and and the high quality
precise
treatment
of both primary disease in the body. You
know, for instance, prostate cancer for
president Biden and also for
oligometastatic
melanoma to the brain that was treated with
stereotactic
radiotherapy.
You know, these types of things,
these types of options and improvements in technology
have improved the quality of life for
those who are, you know, most well known
amongst our population.
But it's also helped to dispel the myth,
that's still prevalent, I'd say. But, you know,
the fact that radiation therapy is no longer
always associated with terrible side effects like burning,
peeling, pain,
you know,
vast damage to
normal tissues all around the target area where
we treat these cancers. I think
the ability to
effectively
treat
different cancers throughout the body, including the brain,
head and neck, spine,
liver,
lung,
bone,
prostate,
and other areas of the body. You know,
the the ability to treat these areas precisely
without causing the kinds of side effects that
have been traditionally
associated with radiotherapy is a huge advancement.
And the fact that the public is seeing
these
advancements on a very,
wide, large scale is reassuring to our field,
I'd say.
Absolutely. Yeah. That kind of that messaging of,
oh, radiation, it's gonna
be this horrible process and, you know, maybe
even some people opting out of it and
saying, I don't wanna put myself through that.
And now
on the flip side of things, that precision
treatment, it's not just the precision of the
radiation that's being delivered, but how it's being
delivered. Right? So I think,
as someone who reports in oncology, it's something
I read all the time. But like you
said to the larger audience of just
being able to save those healthy tissues and
be precise on where it's delivered is
is such a big innovation that, hopefully, you
know, that messaging gets out there.
Right. Right. Absolutely.
Thank you.
Well, great. And I'd love to touch on
too,
you know, at Presbyterian,
the community based practice and and the community
that you serve,
what are some of their considerations
or the unique aspects to delivering care
and providing, you know, like we said, those
precision radiation oncology services within that setting?
Yeah. Thanks for that.
You know,
in our community, we have a large community.
And I'd say the most important aspects
of what we do is access,
technology,
expertise,
and efficiency.
You know, we our whole goal is is
to
treat patients
with
the highest quality of cancer care, but at
the same time, do so in a very
efficient manner because the need is so
great. So as you can imagine,
in a state like New Mexico,
we see patients
from all different backgrounds,
from all different areas of the state,
and even outside of the state
that,
some have very complex problems and others have
more
straightforward problems. But I think the commonality is
is that
we wanna get these patients treated with the
most advanced
treatment options, but at the same time
without a significant delay.
And that requires kind of an understanding and
appreciation
of of all of the aspects
of
delivering care in a cost conscious environment. It
it
it involves an understanding of payer mix,
technology,
staffing models, population
health dynamics, and how trends of
prevalence of different community based cancers arise,
you know, an understanding of integrated health care
systems,
and probably most of all, creativity in what
we do, you know, especially with regards to
staffing models,
with respect to referral patterns and how we,
help to,
share
the increasing indications for what we do with
our referring providers
and also the patient population
just in general,
education for screening, for appropriate screening, and
timely treatment.
Because as we know, when you catch cancers
earlier,
they're treated all the more effectively and without
side effects and with
an expectation of a great outcome.
Mhmm. So those are things that we focus
on in our community.
Access
access is number one
and access
to high quality care
on a timely basis
is most important.
Perfect. Thank you for laying that out too.
I I love that you touched on, you
know, access doesn't just mean
accessing care, you know, being able to schedule
appointment. It means all those different factors that
you mentioned, payer,
considerations,
and time, and and all those different,
you know, sometimes barriers. Right? So,
it's always so valuable to hear from someone
who's there and and doing the work to
to kind of streamline and and find those
solutions to providing care access. So thank you
for sharing that. And and that's all the
time we have. So I'd love to thank
you for joining me on the podcast today
as well. It's been such an informative discussion.
Oh, thank you for having me. I appreciate
it.
Alright. And I invite our listeners to tune
in some more podcasts from Becker's Healthcare by
visiting our podcast page at beckershospitalreview.com.
I hope you all have a wonderful rest
of your day. Thanks.