Everyone involved in budgeting knows the process includes reviewing past performance, determining how to use resources, and projecting future performance based on the outlined plans. In a steady state, or in environments where change is incremental, the outcome of this process can be straight-forward, predictable and similar from year to year. The process is more challenging in times of dramatic change when past performance can be a poor predictor of future success. Planning in such times is analogous to constructing a building on shifting ground.
Indeed, the ground on which we base clinical care for cancer patients is undergoing major shifts in not one, but two dimensions. Continue reading