Association of Community Cancer Centers president seeks to grow workforce amid challenges
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As president of Association of Community Cancer Centers, Olalekan Ajayi, PharmD, MBA, is heeding the lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“COVID-19 pointed out so many gaps within our health care system,” Ajayi told Healio. “We had a workforce that was weary and burned out, but the patients and their need for care don’t just go away. The demand on the oncology workforce became unsustainable.”
Ajayi, who was elected to a 1-year term as president of the association in March, spoke with Healio about the challenges currently facing community cancer care providers, his background and accomplishments, and how he hopes to develop and encourage future leaders in oncology.
Healio: What is your background in oncology, and how do you plan to use this experience in your role as association president?
Ajayi: I serve as chief operating officer at Highlands Oncology Group in Northwest Arkansas. I am a pharmacist by trade — I got my PharmD degree from the University of Wyoming and an MBA from University of Colorado in Denver. I started my career as a pharmacist, then moved on to several administrative roles at my hospital in Sheridan, Wyoming. That’s when I got into the oncology field and developed a passion for oncology. I grew within that field until I landed my current role as COO here at Highlands. I’ve always had a desire to develop our workforce.
So, coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic and looking toward the future, we have several challenges ahead. For example, we have artificial intelligence coming into health care, and we don’t really know the full implications of that technology. We also face many other issues, from both a legislative and operational standpoint, that are becoming more and more difficult to manage for your average oncology provider. We need to start thinking about our workforce and making the necessary investments to deal with the complexity of the health care environment we are in. That is where my passion is. That is where I want to spend the next 12 months of my presidency.
Healio: What are some of the specific issues you want to address?
Ajayi: There are so many challenges that we must think about. Number one are reimbursement issues. A typical community cancer center has to constantly think about reimbursement. Then there is the administrative burden of documenting insurance and keeping up with payer demands. That is a big issue every cancer center faces right now. Additionally, we are seeing differences in patient sociodemographic factors — like transportation and coordinating care for the patient. This can be a huge burden on cancer centers, because not only do you have to deal with the disease, you also have to deal with all of the variables going on in the patient’s life to coordinate that care.
Additionally, we have an influx of new knowledge and new drug discoveries. The innovations are great, but they leave a lot of information and science to keep up with. As health care workers, we haven’t really figured out the best way to give people access to the resources they need. We have to not only treat the patient, but also manage all the variables around the care of that patient. It’s a complex system.
Healio: There used to be a perception that in order to receive optimal cancer care, patients had to travel to a major academic medical center. Is this changing?
Ajayi: I definitely support the idea of patients getting care where they live — not having to travel extensive distances to get to an academic center.
A few things are very important to remember. Oncology practices’ abilities to build relationships and networks can be very powerful. For example, here in Northwest Arkansas, we have relationships with academic centers through which we can help enroll patients locally and arrange for that care to be brought here into the community. I think there needs to be more of those kinds of partnerships.
Second, it’s important to invest in the resources we need to provide this level of care in a community setting. Particularly with enrolling patients in clinical trials, the necessary manpower can be very lacking in a community setting. So, how do we partner in a way that provides those resources?
The third issue, from a physician standpoint, is that we need to ensure we have more physicians who are principal investigators in clinical trials. That can help us identify our patients who are potential candidates for trials — one huge area we need to work on.
Healio: Is there anything else you’d like to say about your goals as president?
Ajayi: I think it’s very important to get our workforce ready for the challenges we’re going to face in the next 5 years in terms of taking care of our patients. Right now, we have so many people who are leaders within their organizations. How do we identify them and give them the resources they need where they are? We need to develop them into the leaders of tomorrow.
Another important goal is to identify other professionals and potential partners who may not be part of the conventional health care spectrum. For example, community workers have been a focal point in getting to the patient and representing that last mile in health care. So, how do we engage people like that, and how do we give them the tools and resources they need to have a bigger impact on their patients? I think we will start to see things like this become increasingly important as we start to recruit people for clinical trials. Those people have a level of access in the community that might not be available to bigger institutions or even community practices, at times. We want to identify those key professionals, partner with them, and leverage what they offer to increase access to the health care system.
For more information:
Olalekan Ajayi, PharmD, MBA, can be reached at Highlands Oncology Group, 808 S. 52nd St., Rogers, AR 72758; email: oajayi@hogonc.com.
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