Vikram Hospital (Bengaluru) has announced the launch of its best-in-class ‘Home Care Service’ for cancer patients to tackle the increasing cases of cancer in Bengaluru. The service will be available only in Bengaluru for now and will expand to other cities of Karnataka depending upon the demand. Latest figures available with Population Based Cancer Registry of Indian Council of Medical Research states that, Bengaluru has the highest number of cases of Cancer in India with 113 males and 139 female cancer patients per 100,000 population.
Dr. Somesh Mittal, Managing Director & CEO, Vikram Hospital (Bengaluru) said, “We strive for excellence in best possible service to patients with the highest regards to quality, patient safety and patient satisfaction. Our ‘Home Care Service’ in Oncology will include treatment of cancer patients including advanced cancers, basic intravenous drugs, safer chemotherapy, pain and palliative care, post chemotherapy care, post radiotherapy and postoperative care. Our team comprising primary care doctor, nurse and attendants will be equipped with basic medical equipment like bedside monitors, ECG machine Blood Pressure instruments, Pulse oximetry, IV Stands, Home Oxygen Concentrators, etc. at all the time and their charges will be based only on usage.”
Commenting on the demand for Home Care Service Dr. Somesh Mittal further added, “The demand for Oncology home care is huge as there is a large subset of patients on home palliative care who need pain management, supportive care and medical review from time to time, but cannot travel to hospital as arranging ambulance, etc. takes a lot of time and resources. However, patients prefer to be connected to the primary treating team always because of trust, empathy and compassion and hence we have included Home Care Service in Oncology.”
Dr. Niti Raizada, Sr. Consultant Medical Oncologist and Hemato-oncologist, Vikram Hospital (Bengaluru) said, “This year, we are introducing precision techniques for prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer combined with a multidisciplinary team for optimal cancer care. Our aim is to provide more effort in improving diagnosis, access to best treatment and care, as well as quality support for patients with cancer and their families. Precision Oncology is emerging as an innovative approach for treatment of cancer that ensures that treatment is specifically designed and targeted to a unique form of cancer.”
“Treatments tailored to specific patients (Precision medicine), hinges on the ability to individualize diagnosis and remedies by linking genomic and molecular data with clinical information gathered in electronic health records. Integrated high end genomics lab with good bioinformatics support, robust electronic medical records, and information technology unit are the basic requisites to support the clinicians to propagate precision medicine,” further added Dr. Niti Raizada.
Comparing the survival rate of patients through precision oncology as compared to standard chemotherapy and radiation Dr. Suraj Manjunath is a Senior Consultant and Chief of Surgical Oncology, Vikram Hospital (Bengaluru) said, “Precise and personalised medicine has replaced the ‘One size fit all approach’ and there have been many research publications showing better outcomes with adoption of precision oncology alone or in combination with traditional therapies such as Chemotherapy and Radiation. One such landmark is the National Cancer Institute’s Molecular Analysis for Therapy Choice (NCI-MATCH) trial, the largest precision medicine trial of its kind, which has achieved a milestone with the release of results from several treatment arms, or sub-studies, of the trial. The new results offer findings of interest for future cancer research that could ultimately play a role in bringing targeted treatments to patients with certain gene abnormalities, regardless of their cancer type.”
