MOQC Celebrates Fifteen Years of Oncology Care Improvement

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The Michigan Oncology Quality Consortium (MOQC) is celebrating fifteen years of improving oncology care through quality improvement initiatives. Formed in 2009, MOQC’s original goal was to bring the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s (ASCO) Quality Oncology Practice Initiative (QOPI) to the state of Michigan. Fifteen years later, MOQC’s statewide collaborations include 80% of oncology practices in Michigan, from large health systems to small rural practices with just one oncologist.

MOQC’s quality work expands far beyond clinical data. It includes partnering with other Collaborative Quality Initiatives (CQIs) on projects to better the lives of patients and caregivers, guiding patients through the financial expense of cancer care, and working to make care more equitable for marginalized communities, In honor of MOQC’s fifteenth anniversary, here are a few highlights from the consortium’s quality improvement efforts.

Comfort Cuisine

MOQC and Healthy Behavior Optimization for Michigan (HBOM) partnered to create a meal delivery pilot to address food insecurity in patients undergoing cancer treatment. The project involves working with one site from each region in medical oncology and one gynecologic oncology site to identify 50 patients who are food insecure to participate in a four-week quality improvement program that delivers ready-to-heat-and-eat meals that improve food access and increase nutrition for these patients and caregivers. The participating practices are currently enrolling patients for the project. 

Interprofessional Development (IPD)

The Interprofessional Development (IPD) workgroup is composed of interdisciplinary team members who are in the process of creating toolkits for each practice to use regarding IPD, the importance of it, and how to provide or facilitate this type of development and education for team members within a practice. In addition, the workgroup has facilitated webinars and is planning more in the coming months. The first offerings in spring 2024 addressed tobacco cessation and were focused toward medical assistants. The second set of webinars took place in September 2024 as a partnership with MiGen, a nonprofit organization that provides education regarding providing quality care for LGBTQIA+ older adults, and focused on educating practices on providing care to those in the community. In winter 2024, pharmacists from the Pharmacists Optimizing Oncology Excellence in Michigan (POEM) program will present on the recognition and treatment of patients experiencing toxicity from immunotherapy. Many more sessions are in the planning phase for 2025.

Patient & Caregiver Oncology Quality Council (POQC)  

MOQC’s Patient and Caregiver Council (POQC) is one of the best and most important aspects of what the team at MOQC does, because POQC elevates the voices of patients and caregivers regarding what quality cancer care really is. POQC members are able to voice their opinions in focus groups or for patient-facing materials review and share stories of how they have faced challenges in accessing the health care system, and ideas for how systems can be created to better serve patients and loved ones.

POQC has their own initiatives and workgroups for accomplishing their goals, including  Patient and Caregiver Resources, Financial Navigation, and Recruitment and Retention:

POQC: Patient and Caregiver Resources  

The goal of this workgroup is to find, evaluate and provide useful information to make it easy for those impacted by cancer to find help, support, and guidance. The focus of this workgroup includes support for patients and caregivers assistance with financial and legal issues, transportation needs, help with food and nutrition, and palliative and end of life care. The group developed a search engine hosted on MOQC’s website that patients and caregivers can use to find resources: https://cancerhelp.moqc.org/

POQC: Financial Navigation  

POQC’s Financial Navigation workgroup collaborated with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) and was awarded a grant to explore financial navigation services within practices. Practices’ financial navigators, social workers, and all healthcare team members who assist patients with the financial complexities of cancer treatments were invited to participate in virtual focus groups. Based on the findings from focus groups, MOQC is partnering with Dan Sherman, LPC, MA, BA, from the Navectis Group to provide formal financial navigation training to MOQC practices. Another grant was awarded by the Gilead Foundation and MOQC is collaborating with the Patient Advocacy Foundation to assess how practices are screening for social drivers of health and what resources are needed to help patients navigate resulting challenges in their cancer care journeys. 

POQC: Recruitment and Retention

This workgroup focuses on the expansion and retention of the POQC, paying particular attention to addressing the substantial gaps in healthcare experiences faced by marginalized populations. The target of current recruitment efforts is recruiting people who have minoritized population status in and of the following categories: race/ethnicity, LGBTQIA+, disability status, and armed services experience.

Looking Ahead at Oncology Care

In all its work, MOQC embodies their core values of collaboration, compassion, growth mindset, trust, and integrity. The collaborative’s decision-making and quality initiatives are guided by their strategic objectives of centering equity, maximizing value, and fostering interprofessional development. With fifteen years of work behind them, the team is excited to continue evolving with new frontiers in cancer care. There is no shortage of work to be done in improving oncology care for patients, but with each passing year, MOQC’s quality improvement efforts are helping to close the gap.

For More Information

Additional resources can be found on the MOQC website.