International Interest in ASCO Quality Programs

ASCO Quality Programs Background

Please review the background of ASCO's quality programs below along with how the programs work.

To help us to understand the potential value and interest in QOPI, QOPI Certification, and the Quality Training Program outside the United States, we ask you to read this background material and answer a few questions.

Background

In 2002, ASCO launched the Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI®), an assessment and reporting program, to help oncologists create a culture of self-examination and improvement in their care of the patients with cancer. By participating in QOPI, oncology practices receive reports that compare their practice with more than 180 established measures of cancer care quality. These measures are based on ASCO guidelines and expert consensus.

Today, more than 1000 practices across the United States are registered for QOPI. QOPI continues to grow and participants share positive feedback regarding the value the program brings to their practice. In the United States, we can see improvements in specific measures, especially those related to new guidelines. In fact, many QOPI practices have published and presented a number of abstracts/articles that showcase their improvements. Currently two practices outside the U.S. are participating on a pilot basis and report the experience as worthwhile. With your help, ASCO would like to explore the possibility of making QOPI more broadly available outside the U.S. We have participation agreements that allow participation by practices in the European Union (England, France, Germany, Greece, and Spain) and Brazil. We are currently working on agreements to expand QOPI participation to other regions, including India and South America.

QOPI Certification: QOPI Certification is designed for those practices that have been performing at a high level in QOPI, and QOPI participation is a prerequisite to applying and achieving QOPI Certification. Currently, ASCO is offering QOPI Certification on a pilot basis in a limited number of countries as part of a strategic initiative to assess where and how ASCO can make QOPI Certification available. Unfortunately at this time we are unable to offer QOPI Certification in all countries where QOPI is available. If you are a practice outside the United States where QOPI is not yet available, please contact QOPI as a first step. For a detailed description of the program and the process, please visit http://www.instituteforquality.org/qopi-certification-program-qcp.

Quality Training Program: As the leading oncology quality improvement (QI) course, ASCO’s Quality Training Program empowers practice teams to improve clinical care and operational performance. The program prepares your oncology providers to design, implement, and lead successful QI activities in busy practice settings. ASCO's program was developed by oncologists and oncology care specialists for oncology practice teams.

The Quality Training Program (QTP) includes access to renowned faculty and coaches during 5 focused days of in-person learning over 6 months. QTP is expanding this program internationally with a train the trainer model. To learn more visit: https://www.asco.org/training-education/professional-development/quality-training-program or contact qualitytraining@asco.org.

How QOPI® works: Participation in QOPI is currently free of charge, but limited to practices with at least one active ASCO member. QOPI consists of a library of quality measures, an online data collection and reporting tool, and a robust Help Desk to guide participants throughout the process. Practice staff members abstract information from the patient medical record and manually enter it into a secure web-based system up to twice per year. Within a month of the submission, participants can log into the secure QOPI System to view reports showing their performance on the quality measures and in comparison with aggregated results among all QOPI participating practices. The information provides a great way to benchmark performance and identify areas to target for improvement activities of the practice and modules selected.

To help us to understand the potential value and interest you may have in the ASCO Quality Programs, we would like you to answer the following questions: