The Problem
Overview
Cancer is an ever-increasing problem affecting the world’s population. Currently, there are approximately 20 million cases of cancer diagnosed annually world-wide. With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.5%, this number is expected to approach and even exceed 30 million by 2030. Along with cancer rates on the rise, diagnostic biopsy rates are currently exceeding 100 million per year. Just as the number of cancer cases is expected to grow, the rate of diagnostic biopsies will also increase incrementally. Cancer is a time-sensitive problem. With every day the diagnosis and treatment are delayed, the more patients, clinicians, hospitals, and medical centers suffer.
Data source: Globocan 2020, Graph production: Global Cancer Observatory (http://gco.iarc.fr) - International Agency for Research on Cancer
Data source: Globocan 2020, Graph production: Global Cancer Observatory (http://gco.iarc.fr) - International Agency for Research on Cancer
At clinical centers around the world, getting a diagnosis of cancer (biopsy results) generally takes between two-to-five days, sometimes longer, for tens of millions of patients. This results in:
Lost revenue
Lower patient throughput resulting from extended procedure time and diagnostic delays
Reduced overall clinical capacity due to repeat procedures limiting new patient access
Patients lost to other providers due to unfavorable patient perception (wait time & care quality)
Elevated cost of care delivery
Increases workload of labor- and cost-intensive pathology procedures
High costs of managing adverse events and associated supplemental clinical interventions
Negative provider quality measures, reputational damage, and risk of malpractice suits
Increased risk of injuring patients
Repeat procedures increase chances of adverse events and complications
Massive anxiety associated with the biopsy procedure alone, complications from the biopsy and the need for repeat biopsies stemming from non-diagnostic results.
Meet Marta
Marta was a 55-year-old patient of mine. She was low income, Spanish speaking, married with two children, and relied upon public transportation. When she learned she had an abnormal finding on her mammogram, she was told that she needed a biopsy to rule out cancer, which she underwent. Soon, Marta learned that her biopsy results would take days, and that’s when the pain really started… the waiting, the anxiety and the uncertainty. Marta couldn’t go to work. She was struggling to understand what was happening to her, and the language barrier only exacerbated the situation. Her husband tried to comfort her, unfortunately in vain, and in keeping her health situation from her children, it added additional stress to an already difficult situation.
As her physician, my hands were tied. What could I do without her biopsy results? Nothing. I couldn’t schedule her for surgery or recommend medical management. I couldn’t reassure her that her biopsy was benign without her results in hand. Like Marta, I too had to wait for the results from pathology which unfortunately wouldn’t be delivered until many days later.
Marta’s story got me thinking. Who else suffers as a result of these diagnostic delays? A lot of people, I realized - the hospitals and centers who were eager to help Marta, the other patients who were waiting to get their results and their treatment plans, and the already overworked pathology department among others.
Soon I learned that over 100 million people globally undergo biopsies every year to rule out various types of cancers. The numbers were astronomical. It became patently clear that this cruel reality, i.e., having to wait for pathology results, was a global problem, not simply specific to the United States, and unfortunately, in most areas of the world, a two-to-five day wait might actually be seen as a rapid turnaround time.
I then asked myself what I could do to solve this global problem. Subsequently, our Caelum Diagnostic Solution’s RPIDx was born.
Sincerely,
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