Advocate discusses how physicians can ‘extend our impact beyond the exam room’
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According to Ashley L. Sumrall, MD, there’s not a great deal of difference between a practicing oncologist and a physician advocate.
“As healthcare providers, we spend a lot of time advocating for our patients,” Sumrall, a neuro-oncologist and clinical assistant professor at Levine Cancer Institute at Atrium Health, said during an education session at ASCO Annual Meeting. “Policy change allows us to extend our impact beyond the exam room, affecting the lives of many more people. This broad and durable impact makes policy advocacy a vital part of our work.”
In her presentation, Sumrall — a member of both the Healio | HemOnc Today Editorial Board and Healio Women in Oncology Peer Perspective Board — discussed the steps clinicians can take to amplify the voices of their patients on a larger scale to affect policy change.
“Lawmakers rely on our expertise in cancer care and health care to make informed decisions,” Sumrall said. “Does your voice matter? Absolutely.”
Goals of the government relations committee
Sumrall outlined the potential impacts of evidence-based policy on improving public health, including preventing disease, promoting healthy lifestyle choices and improving efficiencies in the health care system. She cited evidence-based policy changes that have had demonstrable benefits to public health, such as seat belt requirements, smoking bans and vaccination requirements.
“These policies improve health outcomes and highlight the importance of advocacy in health care,” Sumrall said.
She discussed ASCO’s Government Relations Committee, which offers the opportunity for practicing health care providers to involve themselves in policy matters. The GRC serves as the primary resource for coordinating issue advocacy in Congress, with the administration, with federal agencies and with state governments. She noted that fellow GRC member and education session speaker Brian Persing, MD, recently testified before Congress as an advocate, and that she met with the House Ways and Means Committee to impact policy change.
“The GRC sets ASCO’s advocacy priorities, including ensuring equitable access to high-quality, affordable health care for patients with cancer and survivors, promoting quality, equity, efficiency of care, and clinical research,” Sumrall said. “These priorities align with congressional elections and the current political climate.”
Sumrall discussed the GRC’s current advocacy priorities. One focus is the ongoing shortage of oncology drugs.
“We recently launched a campaign to highlight drug shortages, a long-standing issue that has gained lawmakers’ attention,” she said.
Other top GRC priorities include Medicare physician reimbursement, telehealth, prior authorization, copay accumulators, access to clinical trials and funding for the NIH, NCI, and the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).
“It’s important to note that Congress has not yet finalized the budget for 2025, and this can affect our efforts in cancer care and research,” Sumrall said.
Medicare expansion and drug issues are also key topics for the GRC team, she added.
‘They want to hear from us’
Sumrall defined advocacy as “the act of supporting a cause through various methods to influence decision making and create change.” She emphasized that advocacy can be achieved through both large and small efforts and doesn’t necessarily need to be an all-encompassing activity for a busy clinician.
“Advocacy can take many forms, such as visiting [Washington] DC, participating in ASCO headquarters activities, making phone calls, or engaging in social media,” she said.
“Sharing stories is such a huge part of this, and I think this is where we really excel as oncologists and oncology professionals,” she said. “When we take the stories that our patients tell us and bring them to those who can create impact and change, that’s when we see their eyes light up. We see that they get it, and they’ll go fight for our patients.”
Any ASCO member who is interested in making efforts toward policy change at the federal and state levels would be a wonderful candidate for the GRC, Sumrall added. She said many lawmakers have been touched by cancer in some way, and they need guidance and information from experts to inform their decisions.
“They want to hear from us — they want to hear lived experiences,” she said. “Cancer has touched many lawmakers in some form. It’s not unusual, when we go to DC, for a lawmaker to share their story about cancer with us. When that happens, we have an opportunity for connection that’s very special, and can lead to lasting change.”
For more information:
Ashley L. Sumrall, MD, FACP can be reached at Ashley.Sumrall@atriumhealth.org.
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Sumrall AE. Advocacy 101: What is advocacy, what are effective advocacy strategies, and why should we engage? Presented at: ASCO Annual Meeting; May 31-June 4, 2024: Chicago.
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