ABSTRACT
It was, perhaps, the …rst time since Hippocrates that a ball of blue yarn made an impact-and a considerable impact, at that-in modern medicine. A ball of blue yarn told cancer doctors and their team a story with a kind of clarity the physicians, nurses, and other sta members had rarely seen. e team gathered to envision and design a new Virginia Mason cancer center, and their …rst step was to understand the reality of the current state. What exactly did the process of delivering cancer care look like step-by-step? What was the patient experience, step-by-step? is required measuring, observing, and detailing every segment of a cancer patient’s journey through the medical center.
