Treatment development: can we find a better way?

The present paper argues that traditional approaches to treatment development, including a technological approach, a stage model, and existing inductive approaches such as functional analysis are inadequate in various ways. Treatment developing needs to focus more on theoretical development, practicality, and the fit with clients and practitioners. We argue that progress requires greater philosophical clarity, and steps to ensure a connection between philosophy of science assumptions and an analytic agenda which fits naturally with applied psychology. Theoretical progress requires distinguishing between clinical and basic models and harmonizing their relationship, and more focus on the manipulable context of action. Applied psychology needs to join in a common cause with basic psychology in domains of mutual interest, and develop basic analyses and mid-level terms that can be both scientifically progressive and clinically useful. Issues of practicality, capacity for dissemination, and public health impact need to be considered at the beginning and throughout treatment development. Issues of effectiveness, change processes, mediation, moderation, training, active components, and similar issues should be part of the evaluation system from the beginning. It is time to create a more coherent approach to treatment innovation.

Defining Value in Cancer Care: AVBCC 2013 Steering Committee Report.

The AVBCC Annual Meeting experiences exponential growth in attendance and participation as oncologists, payers, employers, managed care executives, patient advocates, and drug manufacturers convened in Hollywood, FL, on May 2-5, 2013, for the Third Annual Conference of the Association for Value-Based Cancer Care (AVBCC). The conference presented an all-inclusive open forum for stakeholder dialogue and integration across the cancer care continuum, facilitating an open dialogue among the various healthcare stakeholders to align their perspectives around the urgent need to address value in cancer care, costs, patient education, safety, outcomes, and quality. The AVBCC 2013 Steering Committee was held on the first day of the conference to define value in cancer care. The committee was divided into 7 groups, each representing a key stakeholder in oncology. The goal of the Steering Committee was to define value from the particular point of view of each of the stakeholder groups and to suggest how that particular perspective can contribute to the value proposition in oncology, by balancing cost, quality, and access to care to improve overall patient outcomes. The following summary highlights the major points addressed by each group.