What is the Quality of Cancer Care Committee (QCCC)?

The Quality of Cancer Care Committee (QCCC) is a trans-governmental agency committee with members from HHS and other federal departments. The QCCC was created in 2000, on the principle that decisions about cancer services by the federal government should be consistent with the best scientific evidence available regarding quality outcomes.

The QCCC was established as part of the wider NCI Quality of Cancer Care Initiative, launched in 1999, and designed to make cancer a working model for quality of care research and application. The Initiative includes a four-point research plan to improve the state of the science for defining, monitoring, and improving the quality of cancer care. The plan was approved by the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services and made an integral part of the department's overall quality improvement initiative. Quality of cancer care was later designated as one of eight "challenge" areas in The Nation's Investment in Cancer Research. The NCI Quality of Cancer Care Initiative reports regularly to NCI's National Cancer Advisory Board and Board of Scientific Advisors and to the National Cancer Policy Board of the Institute of Medicine, and operates in close coordination with the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The missions of the QCCC are to:

• describe quality of cancer care research supported or conducted by federal agencies;
• determine agency needs for evidence about the quality of cancer care and map these needs to likely applications;
• identify gaps between research and needs in order to stimulate collaborative interagency QCCC projects, focusing in particular on effectiveness, patient satisfaction, cost burden, and other outcomes that matter to patients and decision makers;
• establish a systematic process for the interaction of the research and application arms of the federal government; and
• ensure that the best evidence is used for decision making in coverage and the delivery of service and that research efforts address evolving questions in care delivery, coverage, regulation, and standard setting.

To achieve its missions, the QCCC:

• supports interagency collaborative demonstration projects to translate knowledge about high- quality cancer care into practice;
• builds on the collective clinical and policy expertise of the QCCC membership to provide technical assistance and advice to public agencies and private organizations upon request; and
• fosters collaboration among QCCC members, the states, and private organizations to support ongoing development of a national cancer data system for monitoring trends in cancer care and identifying population disparities.

The QCCC meets regularly to discuss ongoing projects and topics of interest to member organizations, and to generate ideas for new initiatives.