Who Is On Your Myeloma Healthcare Team?
Who Is On Your Myeloma Healthcare Team? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
Myeloma patients have key team members involved in their treatment and care. Expert Dr. Rafael Fonseca provides an overview of the members of the healthcare team and how they play a role in providing optimal patient care.
Dr. Rafael Fonseca is the interim director of Mayo Clinic Cancer Center and serves as the director for Innovation and Transformational Relationships at Mayo Clinic in Arizona. Learn more about Dr. Fonseca here.
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Transcript:
Katherine:
When a person is diagnosed with myeloma, they usually have a whole healthcare team. Who is typically on that team?
Dr. Fonseca:
Absolutely. Let me start by saying the key to the successful management of myeloma is to have a well-organized team. It’s a disease that requires an integrated approach that usually brings around the patient a physician.
As part of my team, we also have advanced practice providers. We work with nurse practitioners that help us do the longitudinal care of patients. We have the nursing team. Every time I meet a new patient, I make it a point to bring my nursing team into the room so they can put a name and a face together, as patients will be interacting, of course, with a nursing team through the portal and the various visits. We have a team that is in charge of the chemotherapy administration. That is usually a separate a nursing team that is in charge of the administration of the medications. But we really don’t stop there.
We have pharmacists who help us review the medications for our patients. Very importantly, we have social workers that help us address psychosocial needs, as well as some of the practicalities that become inevitable when one deals with a serious diagnosis like multiple myeloma.