Table 2.

Patient Care in Community and Academic Oncology

Dimension	Community Oncology	Academic Oncology
Patient population	Usually insured, often older, sometimes friends and neighbors	Varies; often younger at superspecialty centers
Case mix	General oncology plus lots of hematology, including coagulation	May be general; often site or disease specific
Research effort	Widely variable from none to hundreds of clinical trial accruals per year	Integrated into mission; significant support at major centers
Hospital work	Single to multiple hospitals visited daily	Usually single hospital, limited time on inpatient service
Doctor role	All levels of service, including procedures	Varies widely; billing rules now require same levels of service as in community practice