Long-term improvement of quality of life in patients with breast cancer: supporting patient-physician communication by an electronic tool for inpatient and outpatient care

Abstract

Purpose The effectiveness of a pathway with quality of life (QoL) diagnosis and therapy has been already demonstrated in an earlier randomized trial (RCT) in patients with breast cancer. We refined the pathway by developing and evaluating an electronic tool for QoL assessment in routine inpatient and outpatient care. Methods In a single-arm study, patients with breast cancer with surgical treatment in two German hospitals were enrolled. QoL (EORTC QLQ-C30, QLQ-BR23) was measured with an electronic tool after surgery and during aftercare in outpatient medical practices (3, 6, 9, 12, 18, and 24 months) so that results (QoL-profile) were available immediately. Feedback by patients and physicians was analyzed to evaluate feasibility and impact on patient-physician communication. Results Between May 2016 and July 2018, 56 patients were enrolled. Physicians evaluated the QoL pathway as feasible. Patients whose physician regularly discussed QoL-profiles with them reported significantly more often that their specific needs were cared for (p < .001) and that their physician had found the right treatment strategy for these needs (p < .001) compared with patients whose doctor never/rarely discussed QoL-profiles. The latter significantly more often had no benefit from QoL assessments (p < .001). Conclusion The QoL pathway with electronic QoL assessments is feasible for inpatient and outpatient care. QoL results should be discussed directly with the patient. Clinical trial information NCT04334096, date of registration 06.04.2020

Effectiveness of an online support program to help female cancer patients manage their health and illness: Protocol for a randomized controlled trial

“…With regard to the effectiveness of patients conducting a dialogue with physicians and nurses about the ePRO profiles elicited through these apps, although this matter is beyond the scope of the intervention of our online support program and this study protocol, it has been reported that a physician's communication style with patients holds the key to the benefit of assessing HR-QOL using an electronic tool when patients initiate discussions with the physician about their HR-QOL profile [ 37 ]. Future studies will be needed to identify what approaches patients need to take to make most efficient use of their own ePRO profiles.…”

Reframing Patient Experience Approaches and Methods to Achieve Patient-Centeredness in Healthcare: Scoping Review

“…After screening the title and abstract of 6183 papers (excluding duplicates) for relevance to the subject, 131 papers were selected. A total of 67 articles [ 1 , 7 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 21 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 , 55 , 56 , 57 , 58 , 59 , 60 , 61 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 , 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , …”

“…For example, identifying patient’s unmet needs for the improvement of person-centered care [ 7 ], identifying the causes of problems in the patient engagement process [ 12 ], visualizing future services by presenting scenarios and prototypes through workshops [ 13 ], or offering strategies by performing persona-scenario sessions [ 14 ] could be explained as divergent processes. However, identifying the preferences of patients or clinicians for specific factors [ 1 ], analyzing barriers to a particular topic [ 15 ], assessing the usefulness of a questionnaire [ 16 ], or refining a tool and evaluating the tool’s feasibility [ 17 ] correspond to a convergence process.…”