The Impact of a Primary Care Education Program Regarding Cancer Survivorship Care Plans: Results from an Engineering, Primary Care, and Oncology Collaborative for Survivorship Health

Abstract

Survivorship care plans (SCPs) have been recommended as tools to improve care coordination and outcomes for cancer survivors. SCPs are increasingly being provided to survivors and their primary care providers. However, most primary care providers remain unaware of SCPs, limiting their potential benefit. Best practices for educating primary care providers regarding SCP existence and content are needed. We developed an education program to inform primary care providers of the existence, content, and potential uses for SCPs. The education program consisted of a 15-min presentation highlighting SCP basics presented at mandatory primary care faculty meetings. An anonymous survey was electronically administered via email (n = 287 addresses) to evaluate experience with and basic knowledge of SCPs pre- and post-education. A total of 101 primary care advanced practice providers (APPs) and physicians (35% response rate) completed the baseline survey with only 23% reporting prior receipt of a SCP. Only 9% could identify the SCP location within the electronic health record (EHR). Following the education program, primary care physicians and APPs demonstrated a significant improvement in SCP knowledge, including improvement in their ability to locate one within the EHR (9 vs 59%, p < 0.0001). A brief educational program containing information about SCP existence, content, and location in the EHR increased primary care physician and APP knowledge in these areas, which are prerequisites for using SCP in clinical practice.

Shoulder girdle impairment in breast cancer survivors: the role of range of motion as predictive factor for dose distribution and clinical outcome

“…Physical and psychological symptoms are common in breast cancer (BC) survivors and patients need specific programs to manage symptoms, psychosocial concerns, follow-up care, and healthy lifestyle changes. 1–3…”

Outcomes of cancer survivorship education and training for primary care providers: a systematic review

“…All 21 studies utilized single-group designs with no comparators. Thirteen studies [ 38 – 40 , 42 , 43 , 45 , 46 , 48 , 51 , 55 – 58 ] used a pre-test, post-test design. Five studies used a post-test only design [ 41 , 47 , 49 , 53 , 54 ], two studies used a mixed-methods approach [ 44 , 52 ], and one study had an unspecified methodology [ 50 ].…”

“…Median time from referral to PCP appointment was 16 days (24% below regional average). 4a Donohue et al 2019 [ 42 ] Cost: NR Country: USA Pre-test, post-test Methods : pre- and post-session 10 question survey assessing: • Knowledge about which cancer patients and/or PCP receive/use SCPs • Timing of SCP provision • Expected SCP content • Location of SCPs in the UW Health system Free text questions on program improvement. Sample: 287 physicians and APPs providers (203 family medicine providers and 84 General Internal Medicine providers).…”

“…Across all studies, outcome measures generally consisted of non-validated self-response measures, increasing risk of self-rater bias. Further, only eight [ 38 – 40 , 42 , 44 , 48 , 52 , 55 ] of 21 studies included a statistical analysis of results and specified the magnitude of change.…”

Moving beyond static survivorship care plans: A systems engineering approach to population health management for cancer survivors

“…39,40 In the absence of continued visits, no standard pathway may exist for the oncology team to monitor clinical activities or communicate with survivors and PCPs—this was part of the rationale for the adoption of SCPs. 6 Assuming that SCPs are not simply archived and forgotten by PCPs or survivors, 17,65 there should be concern that SCPs are not typically updated. Users may abandon them because of outdated or inaccurate information or, worse, may rely on them to guide care despite outdated information.…”