GE Healthcare and St. Luke's University Health Network in Pennsylvania will pilot the first One-Stop Clinic rapid diagnostic breast cancer center model in the U.S.
The One-Stop Clinic model utilizes a multimodality approach to coordinate patient journeys from initial appointment through diagnosis and treatment plan. It keeps patients with one team in one location to reduce the time frame between an abnormal screening mammogram and a breast cancer treatment plan.
The Gustave Roussy Cancer Center in France first created the model to improve clinical outcomes and expedite breast cancer diagnosis and treatment planning. GE Healthcare and Premier previously announced plans in 2019 to open the first One-Stop Clinic model in the U.S.
GE Healthcare and Premiere Applied Sciences chose St. Luke's for the pilot site because the health network already employs a five-day diagnostic imaging workflow. Once operational, the One-Stop Clinic will further reduce this time to 36 hours or fewer.
St. Luke's has begun to pilot the shorter workflow and plans to open the One-Stop Clinic in 2021. The patient's journey through the clinic will start with a mammogram, followed by a biopsy and pathology as needed, with diagnosis and treatment planning services to women with confirmed cancer cases.
The goal is to take what's learned from St. Luke's and share key findings with other health systems in the future. A shorter diagnostic process could also help mitigate breast cancer diagnostic delays due to thousands of missed mammograms during the COVID-19 pandemic.
