Collaborating with the Community: Improving Patient Access to Palliative Radiation Therapy

The palliative clinical specialist radiation therapist: A CAMRT White Paper

“…Another area in which the pCSRT can positively impact increased access to care is by conducting community outreach initiatives. It is well-documented that utilization rates of pRT for patients are lower than expected 25 . The pCSRT is wellpositioned to provide education to HCP and promote awareness of the indications for pRT to significantly improve referral patterns and utilization rate of pRT.…”

A Canadian experience of palliative advanced practice radiation therapy TIPS: Training, implementation, practice and sustainability

“…This results in increased efficiency for the system, and directly improves the ability to expedite patient care throughout a patient’s journey. In the pRT domain, the impact of a pCSRT on increasing capacity is seen through expedited care, downstream time-savings, and enhanced access to care with tele-oncology [4] , [5] , [14] , [18] , [19] , [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] .…”

“…Using their advanced competencies, they incorporate evidence-based practice into RT to benefit patients and maximize the functioning of interprofessional teams. The data demonstrating pCSRTs’ improvement on the quality of patient care were collected ( Table 2 ) and can be summarized under system improvement, quality and safety of treatment, technical innovation and implementation, and patient satisfaction [1] , [5] , [6] , [12] , [13] , [17] , [17] , [25] , [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] .…”

“…By incorporating the pCSRT role into current pRT framework, a pCSRT-facilitated model of care can be tailored locally to improve the quality of and access to pRT [5][6][7].…”

“…In Ontario, it is estimated that “…one-third of patients who die of cancer in Ontario need palliative radiotherapy, but many of them are never treated” [4] . By incorporating the pCSRT role into current pRT framework, a pCSRT-facilitated model of care can be tailored locally to improve the quality of and access to pRT [5] , [6] , [7] .…”