For research on early stage Breast Cancer
Emily Podany, MD, Hematology-Oncology Fellowship Program, Fellow Wellness Leader, WashU Division of Oncology, received a 2024 Conquer Cancer Merit Award for the ASCO Quality Care Symposium for her abstract (poster presentation) “Improving the OncotypeDX ordering process in patients with ER+ HER2- early-stage breast cancer: A longitudinal QI project.”
These distinguished awards recognize first authors on top-ranking abstracts selected for presentation at the ASCO Quality Care Symposium on September 27–28, 2024, in San Francisco, CA.
The quality improvement initiative she spearheaded alongside Andrew Davis, MD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, WashU Division of Oncology, and Cynthia Ma, MD, PhD, Professor of Medicine, WashU Division of Oncology, made significant changes in the process to order the OncotypeDX, a recurrence score for early-stage breast cancer patients that helps guide treatment. This led to an improvement in both delay in OncotypeDX ordering and availability of the test at the first office visit for patients from 50% in August 2023 pre-implementation to nearly 100% now.
