ASCO recently released a new video about CancerLinQ™, the Society’s big data initiative to rapidly improve the quality of care for people with cancer. CancerLinQ is operated by CancerLinQ LLC, a wholly owned nonprofit subsidiary of ASCO, and it is the only national system of its kind created by oncologists for oncologists to directly improve the care of their patients.

In the video, three physicians—Dax Kurbegov, MD, Keith A. Thompson, MD, and Robin Zon, MD, FACP—discuss why their practices opted to become CancerLinQ vanguard practices, a term for the early-adopter practices who signed on prior to June 30, 2016.

“When we had the opportunity to be involved in … CancerLinQ, we jumped right on it because we were so happy that there was going to be a system, a big data system, that was going to be able to take data from the 97% of people that are not on clinical trials,” says Dr. Zon in the video.

Dr. Zon also explains that she was interested in CancerLinQ because it was an ASCO product, a sentiment Dr. Kurbegov echoes: “Part of what made this very attractive to us was that ASCO was advancing this initiative, and ASCO was one of the few organizations that I think has the credibility to really do this.”

As of today, CancerLinQ is up and running in more than 65 practices across the country—from small private practices to major cancer centers—and is drawing on more than 850,000 patient records from across the United States.

CancerLinQ is supported in part through the Conquer Cancer Foundation, whose generous donors have helped make the system possible.

Earlier in the year, ASCO released its Patient Video, in which a number of patient advocates discussed the way in which CancerLinQ could help improve the quality of care for patients.

Originally published on ASCO in Action.