Improving lung cancer PROs measurement through patient feedback (#332)
Emma L Gardiner
1
,
Angela Ives
1
,
Lesley Millar
1
,
Christobel Saunders
1
- Medical School, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
- Background – Lung cancer has the highest rate of mortality of all cancers in Australia, leading to more than 8,000 deaths in 2020. Understanding what aspects of cancer care are the most important for patients is a key focus of the Continuous Improvement in Care - Cancer (CIC Cancer) Project.
- Aims - This research seeks to improve patient outcomes through the integration of patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) into standard clinical care, in both public and private hospital settings.
- Methods – In this study, we assessed the views of 50 stage I Non-small cell lung cancer patients, recruited from two hospitals (public and private) in WA. Patients were asked their views on the importance of recording PROMs, within the context of their lung cancer management. Questions asked included their preferred way of completing questionnaires, the number of times they needed to complete PROMs (baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months) to capture their main symptoms and health concerns, and how they preferred to complete the survey: phone, mail, email or whilst waiting for an appointment.
- Results – Our analyses show that patients find that standardised questionnaires adequately encompass their symptoms, time from diagnosis to treatment is adequate, and patients feel more supported in their cancer care needs through open communication with their healthcare workers and with adequate follow up.
- Conclusion – The results of this study will identify patients’ views of PROMs and how these data can be used to improve routine clinical practice.