McKesson leads the charge in rev­o­lu­tion­iz­ing pre­ci­sion on­col­o­gy in com­mu­ni­ty prac­tices

Pre­ci­sion med­i­cine has be­come the cor­ner­stone of can­cer care over the last decade. In 2024, the U.S. Food and Drug Ad­min­is­tra­tion ap­proved 48 pre­ci­sion med­i­cine treat­ments, ac­cord­ing to Pre­ci­sion Med­i­cine On­line, up from 28 in 2023,¹ with many more in the pipeline.² While these promis­ing treat­ments are trans­form­ing care and ex­tend­ing lives, the com­plex­i­ty of the pre­ci­sion on­col­o­gy land­scape can present chal­lenges for com­mu­ni­ty on­col­o­gy prac­tices, where ap­prox­i­mate­ly 80% of peo­ple with can­cer in the U.S. re­ceive their care.³

Giv­en the rapid changes, com­mu­ni­ty prac­tices must find in­no­v­a­tive, ef­fec­tive ways to keep pace with these dy­nam­ic ad­vance­ments to en­sure on­col­o­gy pa­tients have ac­cess to the best care. Clin­i­cal and op­er­a­tional ad­just­ments must be made to ac­com­mo­date these new ther­a­pies, but change is not al­ways easy. How­ev­er, by pair­ing tech­nol­o­gy with ed­u­ca­tion and im­proved process­es, com­mu­ni­ty on­col­o­gy prac­tices can ef­fi­cient­ly im­ple­ment prac­ti­cal so­lu­tions to dri­ve bio­mark­er test­ing and tar­get­ed ther­a­py uti­liza­tion, ush­er­ing in a dig­i­tal trans­for­ma­tion that can un­lock the po­ten­tial of pre­ci­sion med­i­cine at the com­mu­ni­ty lev­el.

Chal­lenges to ac­cess­ing pre­ci­sion med­i­cine

Com­mu­ni­ty prac­tices, es­pe­cial­ly those in rur­al and un­der­served ar­eas, treat pa­tients with a wide va­ri­ety of can­cers re­quir­ing ex­pan­sive ex­per­tise and cur­rent knowl­edge across many do­mains.⁴ Many pa­tients el­i­gi­ble for pre­ci­sion treat­ments nev­er re­ceive them or dis­en­gage dur­ing treat­ment⁵ due to de­layed or missed bio­mark­er test­ing, treat­ment ini­ti­a­tion be­fore bio­mark­er re­sults are re­ceived, in­com­plete bio­mark­er as­sess­ments, and in­ac­tion on test re­sults.⁶  A range of is­sues, in­clud­ing in­suf­fi­cient tech­ni­cal sup­port, lack of bio­mark­er test­ing and di­ag­nos­tic tools, slow lab times, in­ef­fi­cient work­flows, and low clin­i­cal tri­al en­roll­ment, all in­hib­it the ef­fec­tive de­liv­ery of pre­ci­sion med­i­cine.

Har­ness­ing tech­nol­o­gy to in­te­grate pre­ci­sion med­i­cine in­to prac­tices—pair­ing tech­nol­o­gy with cus­tomized work­flows and ed­u­ca­tion—may of­fer a so­lu­tion. For ex­am­ple, elec­tron­ic health records (EHR) em­bed­ded with clin­i­cal and ad­min­is­tra­tive tools can sup­port pre­ci­sion on­col­o­gy, of­fer­ing providers bio­mark­er or­der­ing guides and test re­sults that pop­u­late in the work­flow. EHRs can link to Na­tion­al Com­pre­hen­sive Can­cer Net­work Guide­lines, fur­ther stream­lin­ing work­flows,⁷ and process­es can be ad­just­ed so bio­mark­er test­ing is part of stan­dard of care. Tech­nol­o­gy can al­so play a cru­cial role in ed­u­ca­tion and train­ing, en­abling per­son­al­ized learn­ing ex­pe­ri­ences to help staff un­der­stand their role in de­liv­er­ing these cut­ting-edge ther­a­pies.

Prac­tices with re­search ca­pa­bil­i­ties can ex­pand ac­cess to tar­get­ed ther­a­pies through clin­i­cal tri­als, which should be the first op­tion for pa­tients, not the last. Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence (AI) can ef­fi­cient­ly iden­ti­fy tri­als that may be ap­pro­pri­ate for pa­tients, fur­ther ex­pand­ing ac­cess to care.

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McKesson is em­pow­er­ing com­mu­ni­ty on­col­o­gy to de­liv­er pre­ci­sion care, im­prov­ing pa­tient out­comes

For decades, McKesson has of­fered mar­ket-lead­ing so­lu­tions that en­able com­mu­ni­ty on­col­o­gy to de­liv­er su­pe­ri­or care while re­main­ing fi­nan­cial­ly strong and in­de­pen­dent. Ad­vanced tech­nolo­gies, an­a­lyt­ics that de­liv­er ac­tion­able in­sights, clin­i­cal re­search sup­port, and ex­per­tise and guid­ance in clin­i­cal and op­er­a­tional ar­eas have helped prac­tices thrive, over­com­ing the many hur­dles cre­at­ed by the ever-chang­ing health­care land­scape.

To­day the tra­di­tion con­tin­ues, with McKesson at the fore­front of pro­vid­ing com­mu­ni­ty on­col­o­gy with in­no­v­a­tive tech­nolo­gies and re­sources specif­i­cal­ly de­signed to dri­ve and sup­port pre­ci­sion med­i­cine. Its rev­o­lu­tion­ary Pre­ci­sion Care Com­pan­ion (PCC) is a trans­for­ma­tive ini­tia­tive de­signed to help com­mu­ni­ty prac­tices tran­si­tion to more bio­mark­er-dri­ven can­cer care. A com­pre­hen­sive so­lu­tion, PCC en­ables pre­ci­sion med­i­cine to be seam­less­ly in­te­grat­ed and im­ple­ment­ed by help­ing prac­tices over­come the clin­i­cal and ad­min­is­tra­tive chal­lenges they face when de­liv­er­ing com­plex tar­get­ed ther­a­pies.

“Pre­ci­sion Care Com­pan­ion is a tes­ta­ment to McKesson’s strong, on­go­ing com­mit­ment to com­mu­ni­ty on­col­o­gy, en­abling providers to ef­fi­cient­ly bring tar­get­ed, per­son­al­ized can­cer care to their lo­cal com­mu­ni­ty,” said Ja­son Ham­monds, chief op­er­at­ing of­fi­cer of On­col­o­gy & Spe­cial­ty for McKesson. “This all-in­clu­sive so­lu­tion ac­cel­er­ates de­vel­op­ment of new treat­ments while pro­vid­ing prac­tices with cut­ting-edge tech­nol­o­gy and re­al-world ev­i­dence that dri­ves im­proved out­comes and ad­vances com­mu­ni­ty can­cer care.”

PCC is a con­sor­tium of in­dus­try ex­perts pro­vid­ing a mul­ti-faceted so­lu­tion that in­cludes re­sources tai­lored to in­di­vid­ual prac­tice needs, such as tar­get­ed ed­u­ca­tion, ad­vanced tech­nolo­gies, best prac­tices, and de­tailed an­a­lyt­ics on bio­mark­er test­ing rates for dif­fer­ent can­cers. The pro­gram in­cludes tech­nol­o­gy im­prove­ments and ad­di­tion­al lab in­ter­faces with On­ta­da’s mar­ket-lead­ing iKnowMed^SM EHR, en­abling en­hanced clin­i­cal de­ci­sion sup­port for pre­ci­sion med­i­cine.

The mod­el unites di­verse per­spec­tives from physi­cians, clin­i­cians, in­dus­try part­ners, and busi­ness lead­ers, fos­ter­ing col­lab­o­ra­tion to ac­cel­er­ate us­age of pre­ci­sion tech­nol­o­gy and ther­a­pies. Ed­u­ca­tion­al and con­sul­ta­tive ser­vices specif­i­cal­ly tai­lored to in­di­vid­ual needs are avail­able, in­clud­ing we­bi­na­rs, a pre­ci­sion med­i­cine boot camp, a mol­e­c­u­lar helpline for ur­gent ques­tions about spe­cif­ic bio­mark­er test re­sults, and mol­e­c­u­lar tu­mor boards.

PCC is cur­rent­ly be­ing de­ployed across The US On­col­o­gy Net­work, an or­ga­ni­za­tion sup­port­ing more than 2,700 in­de­pen­dent, com­mu­ni­ty-based providers. The PCC team as­sists par­tic­i­pat­ing prac­tices dur­ing each step of the care jour­ney—from test or­der­ing and re­sults re­view to guide­line-in­formed tar­get­ed ther­a­py de­ci­sions. This con­sul­ta­tion is in­valu­able, as providers may strug­gle to keep up with new re­search. Re­searchers are rapid­ly iden­ti­fy­ing mol­e­c­u­lar ab­nor­mal­i­ties that fu­el sub­sets of com­mon tu­mors, and drugs are swift­ly be­ing de­vel­oped to tar­get them. In­put from the PCC team may in­crease provider con­fi­dence and can help en­sure pa­tients re­ceive op­ti­mal treat­ments, es­pe­cial­ly for rare can­cers. The team al­so pro­vides guid­ance con­cern­ing the fre­quen­cy of biop­sies and what ac­tion to take if clon­al evo­lu­tion oc­curs.

McKesson is al­so ad­vanc­ing pre­ci­sion on­col­o­gy through oth­er ini­tia­tives. In 2022, it formed a joint ven­ture with HCA Health­care’s Sarah Can­non Re­search In­sti­tute (SCRI).  This joint ven­ture es­tab­lished a ful­ly in­te­grat­ed on­col­o­gy re­search or­ga­ni­za­tion aimed at ex­pand­ing clin­i­cal re­search, ac­cel­er­at­ing drug de­vel­op­ment, and in­creas­ing avail­abil­i­ty and ac­cess to clin­i­cal tri­als for com­mu­ni­ty on­col­o­gy providers and pa­tients, in­clud­ing those in un­der­served com­mu­ni­ties. McKesson al­so ac­quired Geno­space, a lead­ing-edge soft­ware com­pa­ny that in­te­grates clin­i­cal, ge­nom­ic, and re­al-world da­ta, en­abling per­son­al­ized treat­ment strate­gies and im­proved out­comes.

“Geno­space is a lead­ing in­no­va­tor in pre­ci­sion med­i­cine and clin­i­cal tri­al match­ing,” said An­drew McKen­zie, PhD, vice pres­i­dent, Per­son­al­ized Med­i­cine, SCRI; Sci­en­tif­ic Di­rec­tor, Geno­space. “Our ad­vanced tech­nolo­gies and an­a­lyt­ics ca­pa­bil­i­ties push the bound­aries of what is pos­si­ble in pre­ci­sion med­i­cine, en­hanc­ing the abil­i­ty of com­mu­ni­ty providers to more ef­fi­cient­ly iden­ti­fy ap­pro­pri­ate ther­a­pies and tri­als for their pa­tients.”

With Pre­ci­sion Care Com­pan­ion, SCRI and Geno­space, McKesson con­tin­ues its long tra­di­tion of pi­o­neer­ing in­no­v­a­tive so­lu­tions that em­pow­er com­mu­ni­ty on­col­o­gy prac­tices to de­liv­er cut­ting-edge, per­son­al­ized can­cer care close to home.

Learn more about McKesson here.

Ref­er­ences:

1. Bryne A. McKesson Looks to Im­prove Pre­ci­sion On­col­o­gy Ac­cess in Com­mu­ni­ty Prac­tice With New Con­sor­tium. Pre­ci­sion Med­i­cine On­line. Apr 25, 2025. Ac­cessed May 4, 2025. https://www.pre­ci­sion­med­i­ci­neon­line.com/pre­ci­sion-on­col­o­gy/mckesson-looks-im­prove-pre­ci­sion-on­col­o­gy-ac­cess-com­mu­ni­ty-prac­tice-new
2. Lot­ter­ing B. Key Trends in the Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Pipeline for 2024 — Part I: Trans­for­ma­tive R&D Growth Dri­ven by Break­throughs in On­col­o­gy, Neu­ro­log­i­cal, and Meta­bol­ic Ther­a­pies. Ge­neOn­line. Oc­to­ber 18, 2024. Ac­cessed April 27, 2025. https://www.ge­neon­line.com/key-trends-in-the-phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal-pipeline-for-2024-part-i-trans­for­ma­tive-rd-growth-dri­ven-by-break­throughs-in-on­col­o­gy-neu­ro­log­i­cal-and-meta­bol­ic-ther­a­pies/
3. As­so­ci­a­tion of Can­cer Care Cen­ters. Qual­i­ty Im­prove­ment Col­lab­o­ra­tion: In­te­gra­tion of Pre­ci­sion Med­i­cine in Com­mu­ni­ty On­col­o­gy. AC­CC. 2025. Ac­cessed April 28, 2025. https://www.ac­cc-can­cer.org/home/learn/pre­ci­sion-med­i­cine/qual­i­ty-im­prove­ment-col­lab­o­ra­tion-in­te­gra­tion-of-pre­ci­sion-med­i­cine-in-com­mu­ni­ty-on­col­o­gy
4. ibid.
5. ibid.
6. ibid.
7. Neubauer M, Mood­ley S. Pre­ci­sion Med­i­cine Im­ple­ment­ed in the Com­mu­ni­ty On­col­o­gy Set­ting. Tar­get­ed Ther­a­pies in On­col­o­gy. March I, 2024. Vol­ume 13, Is­sue 3. Ac­cessed May 3, 2025. https://www.tar­gete­donc.com/view/pre­ci­sion-med­i­cine-im­ple­ment­ed-in-the-com­mu­ni­ty-on­col­o­gy-set­ting