Kathy Lokay is general manager, as well as chief cheerleader and idea generator, for Via Oncology. Kathy joined UPMC in 2008 to launch the Via Oncology product that UPMC CancerCenter started in 2004. Her background as a CPA combined with her 20 years of experience in oncology have been a great foundation to help her lead Via’s overall strategy and execution. She is passionate about driving the volume to value transition in oncology and has made clinical pathways her personal mission for the past 11 years. Kathy was previously senior vice president at US Oncology with responsibility for several business units. She received her Bachelor of Business Administration in accounting from the University of Texas.
02:15 Evidence-based care vs best practice.
03:21 How the lack of comparing treatments head-to-head creates challenges for pathways.
04:30 Why community physicians are more accepting of pathways.
05:11 Winning the support of academic physicians.
06:49 What a pathway looks like.
08:43 How pathways are helping physicians run tests for diseases they normally wouldn’t run without it being inefficient.
10:21 How the pathways account for the patient’s choice.
11:50 Standardizing nationally and what these benefits are.
13:37 “We should all be approaching the same cases the same way.”
15:43 The barriers to standardizing.
17:06 “You really need strong leadership that says, ‘This is why this is so important.’”
20:39 “Pathways may actually not reduce costs.”
21:31 “The #1 goal is to improve patient outcomes.”
24:30 How clinical trials fit into pathways.