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Episode 425: How AI Can Help Healthcare Organizations Improve the Cancer Experience

Release Date: 07/24/2026

Episode 427: Pharmacology 101: Resistance Pathways

The ONS Podcast

“A good way of thinking about this is this is the survival of the fittest clone. There could be a portion of a cancer that naturally has some resistance or ability to survive a particular drug. And over time, as the other cells around it are dying off, that particular clone is able to replicate and continue to survive in the face of that drug therapy and eventually take over as being the fittest clone. At that point, we’re often seeing disease progression,” Danielle Roman, PharmD, BCOP, manager of clinical pharmacy services at the Allegheny Health Network Cancer Institute in Pittsburgh,...

Episode 426: Tools to Support Patients and Nurses Through Medical Trauma in Oncology

The ONS Podcast

“When people with PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] get quite avoidant—and that can be expressed in so many different ways—the implications can be really profound. I think an important invitation to oncologists and oncology nurses and primary care providers who care for people battling cancer is let’s explore what's underneath these avoidant behaviors. Is it a very practical thing? Or is it that underneath this avoidant behavior is really profound fear?” James C. Jackson, PsyD, research professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN, told Lenise Taylor, MN,...

Episode 425: How AI Can Help Healthcare Organizations Improve the Cancer Experience

The ONS Podcast

Episode 424: Radiation Site-Specific Side Effects: Cancers of the Pelvis

The ONS Podcast

“Think about what organs lie in the radiation field, and anything that lies in that radiation field is likely going to have some potential temporary—hopefully temporary—side effects. If you think about the pelvis, the things that live in there are the bladder, urethra, some bowel, rectum, reproductive organs, skin, some lymph nodes. And so, all of those things could potentially have associated side effects,” ONS member Kayla Kafka-Peterson, BSN, RN, ROCN™, nurse navigator and leader in the brachytherapy and peri-anesthesia programs at UCLA Health, in Los Angeles, CA, told Lenise...

Episode 423: Pharmacology 101: Interaction Pathways

The ONS Podcast

“When we think of drug interactions, specifically, the National Cancer Institute actually defines this as a change in the way a drug acts in the body when taken with certain other drugs, herbals, or foods or when taken with certain medical conditions. Drug interactions may cause the drug to either be more or less effective or cause effects on the body that are not expected,” Carissa Ganihong, PharmD, BCOP, oncology and bone marrow transplantation clinical pharmacist at Hackensack University Medical Center in New Jersey, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®, manager of oncology...

Episode 422: An Overview of Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia for Oncology Nurses

The ONS Podcast

“What I appreciate about our patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) or small lymphocytic leukemia is the consideration that they receive a cancer diagnosis, and the best thing for them to do is actually nothing. There is a large population of patients that we don’t recommend any type of treatment. We recommend that they establish care with an oncologist and that they have a relationship with those care teams,” ONS member Caitilin Murphy, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, AOCNP®, chief nurse practitioner at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®,...

Episode 421: Medical Trauma in Oncology

The ONS Podcast

“There are a huge array of medical dynamics that people endure, and when they leave a lasting impact, a word that we don’t use widely enough is the word ‘trauma.’ There’s an entire category of phenomena in the medical arena that are, in fact, traumatic. One way we know that these experiences are traumatic is that we know that huge portions of people who experience things like cancer do indeed develop problems like [post-traumatic stress disorder],” James C. Jackson, PsyD, research professor at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, TN, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN,...

Episode 420: Long-Term Myelodysplastic Syndrome Considerations for Oncology Nurses

The ONS Podcast

“We typically think of the disease progressing for our higher-risk patients because many of them already start with increased blasts or a lot of dysplasia. And they have these chromosomal variants that make them prone to evolving into acute myeloid leukemia (AML). With them, we can anticipate that they are going to progress to AML. And that’s what we’re trying to prevent. It’s kind of like a biologic evolution and not a switch,” ONS member Sara Tinsley-Vance, PhD, APRN, AOCN®, nurse practitioner and quality-of-life researcher at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa, FL, told Lenise...

Episode 419: Pharmacology 101: Immunomodulators

The ONS Podcast

“Until immunomodulators, patients [with myeloma] did not have a great overall survival rate. But when we introduced lenalidomide, we started seeing our patients have life expectancies between five and seven years—which was unheard of prior to these immunomodulators going forward. I think it’s promising and allows patients to have quality of life versus therapy of life,” ONS member Daniel Verina, DNP, RN, ACNP-BC, nurse practitioner for the multiple myeloma program at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, NY, told Lenise Taylor, MN, RN, AOCNS®, TCTCN™, oncology clinical specialist...

Episode 418: Radiation Site-Specific Side Effects: Colorectal Cancer

The ONS Podcast

“Radiation therapy is often extremely well tolerated in colorectal cancer. Technology has really changed things. But location of the tumor can affect side effects, such as radiation dermatitis. If a patient has a low-lying tumor, if it’s less than six centimeters from the anal verge, the patient is likely to have some skin reaction. It’s good to be proactive if that’s the case,” ONS member Lorraine Drapek, DNP, FNP-BC, AOCNP®, nurse practitioner in the Department of Radiation Oncology at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS®,...

More Episodes

“In oncology specifically, where care is complex, artificial intelligence (AI) can really synthesize large volumes of clinical information, flag risks such as treatment complications, and support adherence to evidence-based pathways. For nurses specifically, this enables them more time for direct patient care, clinical judgment, and care coordination, and really practice to the top of their license while reducing repetitive time and administrative tasks,” Jenn Frith, DNP, RN, OCN^®, NE-BC, associate vice president of clinical operations at Duke Cancer Institute in Durham, NC, told Jaime Weimer, MSN, RN, AGCNS-BS, AOCNS^®, manager of oncology nursing practice at ONS. Weimer spoke with Frith and Emily Norboge, director of clinical and research informatics at Duke Cancer Institute, about how AI can help healthcare organizations improve the cancer experience.

Music Credit: “Fireflies and Stardust” by Kevin MacLeod

Licensed under Creative Commons by Attribution 3.0

Earn 0.5 contact hours of nursing continuing professional development (NCPD) by listening to the full recording and completing an evaluation at courses.ons.org by July 24, 2027. The planners and faculty for this episode have no relevant financial relationships with ineligible companies to disclose. ONS is accredited as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the American Nurses Credentialing Center’s Commission on Accreditation.

Learning outcome: Learners will report an increase in knowledge related to the use of artificial intelligence in oncology nursing practice.

Episode Notes

To discuss the information in this episode with other oncology nurses, visit the ONS Communities.

To find resources for creating an ONS Podcast club in your chapter or nursing community, visit the ONS Podcast Library.

To provide feedback or otherwise reach ONS about the podcast, email pubONSVoice@ons.org.

Highlights From This Episode

Norboge: “Our AI voice agent has a series of workflows that it can execute. ... If a patient needs help with medical paperwork, the agent will walk the patient through how to do that paperwork. If a patient has a question that they need sent to their provider, it can document that and then send a message to the provider. There’s a series of workflows so it can route to scheduling. It can answer information about test results that is compliant with our policy around test results. The goal of that agent is that it will handle all of those administrative-type tasks that don’t necessarily require a nurse to fill.” TS 5:44

Norboge: “When [patients] call the nurse triage line, the nurse will have to say, ‘I understand you want your test results. I can contact your provider and have them reach out to you about your results.’ But that’s kind of where it ends. What we worked out with the agent is if a patient calls and says, ‘I really want my test results,’ they will in a very nice, standard way, say something similar. You know, ‘I’m not authorized to discuss your test results with you, but I’d be happy to send a message to your provider and ask them to call you.’ But then the agent goes one step further and says, ‘Are you experiencing anxiety about your test results? If so, I can transfer you to the nurse to discuss support for a potential referral to family medical therapy if you would like help managing that anxiety.’ In a clear, helpful way, it can define and help a patient with their needs and not just have a standard of ‘this is our policy and I can’t share it with you.’” TS 11:14

Frith: “Really, transparency is the key. The patient should understand that AI is used more as an enhancement, but not to replace the human connection. That’s not the goal. The nurses can explain that the tools will help ensure accuracy, timeliness, and safety while allowing more time for the direct interaction of the nurse. I think framing AI as an additional layer of support rather than a decision maker helps build trust. And I think maintaining strong communication and presence at the bedside just reinforces that care remains fundamentally human.” TS 15:32

Frith: “I think AI in oncology is going to continue to advance in our predictive analytics, personal care planning, and probably real-time decision support. I think we’ll see a greater integration into symptom management, some early detection of complications, and longitudinal care coordination across our settings. I think nurses will continue to increasingly use AI to anticipate patient needs and prioritize care. I think the role of the nurse won’t diminish. Rather, it will become more elevated in allowing them to practice to scope of practice.” TS 19:58

Frith: “AI represents a meaningful opportunity to strengthen oncology nursing practice by reducing burden and enhancing the clinical insight. It needs to be a very thoughtful implementation. We talked about having strong governance and continued investment in the nursing workforce. I want to reinforce that oncology care remains deeply human, and AI should only be viewed as a tool that enables the nurses to do what they do best, which I feel is deliver safe, compassionate, and high-quality specialized care to our most vulnerable patients.” TS 27:31

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