The 2010 Health Care Reform Act: a potential opportunity to advance cancer research by taking cancer personally.

ABSTRACT

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 will have a profound influence on health care in the United States, including how we conduct cancer research and cancer care delivery. For this reason, oncologists and researchers must be intimately involved in the implementation and interpretation of this important legislation. A major goal of the Act is to improve access to affordable, quality health care. An important element in achieving this goal will be to learn from patients' experiences and build the foundation for evidence-based personalized medicine. This will require a partnership among researchers, clinicians, policy makers and regulators, and patients to design an integrated information network system that will be the basis for providing the right treatment for the right patient in the right place at the right time. In this review, we will discuss the salient points of the Act that specifically affect cancer research and care, as well as highlight opportunities for oncologists and researchers to play a primary role in developing a health care system that includes personalized medicine approaches that will in turn enhance the likelihood of achieving the goals and objectives of the health care reform act.