Recognizing the real-world impact of nurse practitioners and physician assistants in Oncology

Cancer care is a complex and multifaceted field that requires the collaboration of various healthcare professionals (HCPs) to help ensure the best outcomes for patients. Among these professionals, nurse practitioners (NPs) and physician assistants (PAs) play increasingly critical roles.

These HCPs are not just assistants to physicians but are actively involved in making crucial treatment decisions, managing complex treatment regimens, and providing comprehensive care to cancer patients. Despite their significant contributions, NPs and PAs are often not formally recognized by specialty based on their education or certifications from organizations such as the American Medical Association (AMA) or the American Board of Medical Specialties (ABMS).

To help biopharma companies better identify key players across the oncology care continuum, we recently enhanced Provider 360 ReadyData™ with new features that deliver additional insights into the specialties and real-world activity of HCPs. In this blog post, we introduce these new enhancements to Provider 360 ReadyData that recognize the complexity and multidisciplinary nature of cancer care and reinforce the importance of NPs and PAs in cancer care.

The Growing Role of NPs and PAs in Oncology

In recent years, treatment decisions, referrals, and prescriptions have increasingly been managed by NPs, and PAs. These non-board-certified providers are heavily involved in delivering patient care, especially in oncology where treatment regimens are extremely complex and often span multiple specialties. Specific areas include:

• Patient Education and Support: NPs and PAs are often at the forefront of patient interaction, providing essential education, support, and counseling. They help patients understand their diagnosis, explore treatment options, and manage side effects, thereby enhancing the overall patient experience and adherence to treatment plans.
• Treatment Management: Under the supervision of oncologists, NPs and PAs manage routine follow-ups, monitor treatment responses, and adjust medications. Their involvement ensures that patients receive continuous and comprehensive care, which is crucial for effective cancer management.
• Holistic Care: NPs and PAs adopt a holistic approach to patient care, addressing both physical and emotional needs. They serve as a bridge between patients and the healthcare team, ensuring that all aspects of a patient's well-being are considered and managed.
  
  

NPs and PAs are pivotal in oncology care, influencing treatment decisions, managing protocols, and ensuring continuity of care. Their expanding roles in healthcare and access to a broad patient base make them valuable partners for biopharma companies to help patients get the right treatments.

As such, recognizing the specialization and real-world activity of these HCPs can provide valuable insights to oncology brand teams to ultimately help improve patient outcomes.

Introducing Enhancements to Provider 360 ReadyData Crafted for Oncology

Traditionally, identification of HCP specialization has relied heavily on outdated taxonomy codes and certifications from organizations like the AMA. However, these methods are not applicable in capturing the real-world contributions of NPs and PAs. For instance, claims data does not often assign a clinical specialty to NPs and PAs or reliably capture practice patterns due to varying payer policies on NP and PA reimbursement. Also, these providers are not formally recognized by specialty based on their education or certifications from organizations like the AMA or ABMS and there isn’t a single database that comprehensively identifies all NPs and PAs in the US.

To help bridge this gap, we are excited to announce new data attributes to Provider 360 ReadyData that will improve the understanding of provider activities based on actual diagnosis and treatment patterns, including:

• The specialty of HCPs, derived by analyzing diagnosis and treatment patterns from medical claims and other data sources. This attribute will initially focus on NPs and PAs who work in oncology, and expand to include other specialties, providing a comprehensive view of HCP specialization based on real-world data (RWD).
• The top five cancer types treated by HCPs, derived from their diagnosis patterns in medical claims and other data sources. This feature will provide the specific disease types each provider frequently manages, such as breast cancer, prostate cancer, lung cancer, or leukemia.

Our robust and nuanced approach combines behavioral pattern modeling leveraging multiple data sources, evidence-based insights from claims data, and adaptive learning, rather than deriving specialties based on claims data alone. We also integrate machine learning with these advanced data science methodologies to offer a more reliable and insightful identification of NPs and PAs in oncology.

By investing in these features, we address a significant market gap, enabling biopharma companies to refine their outreach strategies, improve engagement with key healthcare providers, and ultimately enhance patient care outcomes.

A New Frontier for Pharma

By accurately identifying the specialization and top treatment areas of providers who have traditionally had no specialty designation, oncology brand teams can improve their understanding of the providers and organizations to help get the right drug to the right patient, faster.

Explore Provider 360 ReadyData Today!

Discover how our new features can transform your understanding of the oncology market. Contact us to see the difference for yourself.