You never want a crisis to go to waste.

U Penn has generated an interesting proposal to establish a formal national provider network for the delivery of palliative radiation, building off lessons learned from the pandemic when many rad onc departments were suddenly forced to scrutinize the utility of their treatments more than ever before. The thought is, having an accessible database of both academic and community practices accredited to deliver high-quality palliative radiation (read: quick turn-around time for conventional, often single-fraction treatments) can improve the ease of referrals closer to home. Another strategy is to routinely screen for travel burden on initial patient assessments to alert physicians when a referral may be particularly beneficial. TBL: Where to treat can be as important a question as when to treat. | Butala, Radiother Oncol 2020