Scientific evidence

Abstract

We have been successfully using a patient's record notebook in home-based outpatient cancer chemotherapy since 2003. Many of the patients expressed their satisfaction carrying a patient record notebook through our questionnaires designed to illicit details of their side effects during the chemotherapy. There are so many tasks the patient has to do by his own once he leaves the hospital and to become an outpatient. One of the important tasks the patient has to do is how to take care of the side effect by himself. In fact, some of the patients had a difficulty in evaluating their own side effect symptoms. In evaluating the side effect of patients by a pharmacist, he should not rely on the patient record notebook alone, but careful attention has to be paid to a patient's general condition by our medical team members consisting of inpatient pharmacists, surgeons, chemotherapists, palliative care physicians, nurses, social workers and others. In order to proceed with the safety of chemotherapy, it is critical to have a consensus based on medical policies concerning the reduction of side effects and to support the fight against cancer with the medical team members. The results also suggest that the patient record notebook is more useful for pharmacists in controlling of side effects and to adopt a prudent policy for chemotherapy.