Transforming Palliative Care in Oncology

About this episode

The episode discusses innovations in palliative care in oncology, focusing on a machine learning initiative to improve end-of-life outcomes.

In this episode of Oncology Unscripted, hosts Mark Liu and Deirdre Saulet speak with 2025 ACCC Innovator Award Winner Andrew Ambort, DO, a palliative care consulting physician at WellSpan Health. Dr. Ambort received the award for his team's innovation "Adopting Machine Learning-Enabled Decision Support to Improve Oncology End-of-Life Outcomes," which leveraged an existing module in the electronic health record to integrate a 12-month mortality risk into clinical workflows. He discusses the vision behind this initiative, plans for expansion into other specialties and service lines, and the human impact that early, integrated palliative care has had on WellSpan's patient community. "[Caregivers] are so busy dealing with the chaos of end-of-life care...and then [they] get this bill at the end that surprises [them] too. It's not the experience we want for anyone, especially patients with cancer." – Mark Liu, MHA "Unfortunately, the bills don't stop coming when people die...and it puts them right back in that [difficult] place. Being able to reduce that cost helps them grieve appropriately and get to a place where they [find acceptance] and prevent backsliding." – Andrew Ambort, DO…

People in this episode

Hosts: Mark Liu, Deirdre Saulet

Guest: Andrew Ambort, DO

Topics covered

• palliative care
• oncology
• machine learning
• end-of-life outcomes
• healthcare innovation

Keywords

• palliative care
• oncology
• machine learning
• mortality risk
• healthcare

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: WellSpan Health, ACCC

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