Identifying Professional Education Gaps and Barriers in Multiple Myeloma Patient Care: Findings of the Managing Myeloma Continuing Educational Initiative Advisory Committee

Connect MM Registry: The Importance of Establishing Baseline Disease Characteristics

“…Thorough diagnostic work-up for accurate disease assessment and risk stratification is important for tailoring treatment approaches and has recently been recognized as an educational need in MM patient care. 16 The median age of patients (67 years) and proportion of male patients (57.2%) included in the Connect MM Registry agrees with other reports describing NDMM patients. [17][18][19][20][21] Most of the patients in this study were Caucasian (81.9%) 17,22 ; however, because the disease generally occurs approximately twice as frequently in African-Americans than in Caucasians, 23 the racial characteristics in the study might reflect the smaller overall percentage of AfricanAmerican individuals in the general population.…”

“…Baseline testing of key factors required for accurate diagnosis and assessment, and adequate monitoring of MM patients to guide therapy decisions appears to be variable, and suggests an unmet educational need. 16 This is represents an opportunity for improvement in the quality of care in this patient population, which can be fulfilled with continued education and training.…”

“…16,29,30 Adherence to established guidance for cancer management can have a positive effect on quality of care, and compliance with NCCN guidelines has been shown to improve survival by > 30%. 16,31 Altogether, a complete baseline diagnostic work-up is essential to optimize the treatment plan and monitor response in NDMM patients. In an era in which the implementation of electronic medical records is evolving, inclusion of NCCN mandated fields would help drive their use.…”

“…However, therapy decisions linked to risk categories are still the subject of ongoing clinical trials and, as reflected in the registries, do not seem to vary in clinical practice. 16 The only field that was reported in all patients was medical history. The procedure reported least was LDH assessment (38% of patients), which was a surrogate measurement of tumor burden.…”

Necessidades não atendidas em mieloma múltiplo no Brasil sob a perspectiva de médicos – barreiras na qualidade de vida e manejo da doença

“…In addition, other factors may also influence the management of MM patients' unmet needs. As reviewed by Noopur Raje et al, studies showed a suboptimal compliance to guidelines by healthcare professionals (Raje et al 2014). This may indicate that guidelines are not always applicable to a real clinical practice setting and healthcare professionals need to adapt according to restrictions imposed by their local healthcare system.…”