Krebs, Markus and Haller, Florian and Spoerl, Silvia and Gerhard-Hartmann, Elena and Utpatel, Kirsten and Maurus, Katja and Kunzmann, Volker and Chatterjee, Manik and Venkataramani, Vivek and Maatouk, Imad and Bittrich, Max and Einwag, Tatjana and Meidenbauer, Norbert and Toegel, Lars and Hirsch, Daniela and Dietmaier, Wolfgang and Keil, Felix and Scheiter, Alexander and Immel, Alexander and Heudobler, Daniel and Einhell, Sabine and Kaiser, Ulrich and Sedlmeier, Anja M. and Maurer, Julia and Schenkirsch, Gerhard and Jordan, Frank and Schmutz, Maximilian and Dintner, Sebastian and Rosenwald, Andreas and Hartmann, Arndt and Evert, Matthias and Maerkl, Bruno and Bargou, Ralf and Mackensen, Andreas and Beckmann, Matthias W. and Pukrop, Tobias and Herr, Wolfgang and Einsele, Hermann and Trepel, Martin and Goebeler, Maria-Elisabeth and Claus, Rainer and Kerscher, Alexander and Lueke, Florian (2024) The WERA cancer center matrix: Strategic management of patient access to precision oncology in a large and mostly rural area of Germany. EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF CANCER, 207: 114144. ISSN 0959-8049, 1879-0852
Full text not available from this repository. (Request a copy)Abstract
Purpose: Providing patient access to precision oncology (PO) is a major challenge of clinical oncologists. Here, we provide an easily transferable model from strategic management science to assess the outreach of a cancer center. Methods: As members of the German WERA alliance, the cancer centers in W & uuml;rzburg, Erlangen, Regensburg and Augsburg merged care data regarding their geographical impact. Specifically, we examined the provenance of patients from WERA<acute accent>s molecular tumor boards (MTBs) between 2020 and 2022 (n = 2243). As second dimension, we added the provenance of patients receiving general cancer care by WERA. Clustering our catchment area along these two dimensions set up a four-quadrant matrix consisting of postal code areas with referrals towards WERA. These areas were re-identified on a map of the Federal State of Bavaria. Results: The WERA matrix overlooked an active screening area of 821 postal code areas - representing about 50 % of Bavaria<acute accent>s spatial expansion and more than six million inhabitants. The WERA matrix identified regions successfully connected to our outreach structures in terms of subsidiarity - with general cancer care mainly performed locally but PO performed in collaboration with WERA. We also detected postal code areas with a potential PO backlog - characterized by high levels of cancer care performed by WERA , low levels or no MTB representation. Conclusions: The WERA matrix provided a transparent portfolio of postal code areas, which helped assessing the geographical impact of our PO program. We believe that its intuitive principle can easily be transferred to other cancer centers.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | Cancer care facilities; Healthcare disparities; Community health services; Intersectoral collaboration; Tertiary healthcare; Health services administration |
| Subjects: | 600 Technology > 610 Medical sciences Medicine |
| Divisions: | Medicine > Lehrstuhl für Innere Medizin III (Hämatologie und Internistische Onkologie) Medicine > Lehrstuhl für Pathologie |
| Depositing User: | Dr. Gernot Deinzer |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Jan 2026 09:16 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Jan 2026 09:16 |
| URI: | https://pred.uni-regensburg.de/id/eprint/64805 |
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