Using Shared Medical Appointments for Delivering Patient-Centered Care to Cancer Survivors: A Feist-Weiller Cancer Center Pilot Study

Abstract

Background: Shared medical appointments (SMAs) have shown promise in the care of patients with conditions such as diabetes; however, the impact of lifestyle medicine-based SMAs on the overall health status of cancer survivors remains poorly understood. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional survey of patients was conducted to study the impact of a unique lifestyle medicine-based survivorship program on cancer survivors. Results: A total of 64 patients were telephonically contacted for the survey, out of which 39 (60.9%) patients responded. All patients (39 of 39, 100%) found the program to be helpful in some way; 26 patients (66.7%) found SMAs to be significantly helpful, while 13 patients (33.3%) found SMAs as only somewhat helpful. The majority noted feeling a great sense of support (35 of 39, 89.7%), followed by improvement in appetite (21 of 39, 54%) and improvement in pain (14 of 39, 35.9%). All patients reported at least some improvement in subjective well-being (SWB); patients who attended >3 appointments reported significant/very significant improvement in SWB ( P = .03). Conclusion: SMAs offer promise in the effective delivery of lifestyle medicine-focused care to cancer survivors. Further prospective studies are needed to validate these findings.

Acceptability and Feasibility of Survivorship Group Medical Visits for Breast Cancer Survivors in a Safety Net Hospital

“…Our intervention was specifically designed to address the unmet need for multidisciplinary services necessary for cancer survivorship. While there are a few small studies on GMV in managing cancer survivorship care issues [34,[37][38][39], our work adds unique knowledge in this field by addressing the needs of low-income BCS who receive care in a public hospital in a low-resource setting. We leveraged an existing patient navigation program to deliver the GMV rather than the medical team taking the lead to provide an intervention focused on survivorship.…”

“…There are only small studies ranging from follow-up for women with BRCA [32] chemotherapy education [33] or addressing concerns related to a single discipline such as gynecological care, [34] smoking cessation, [35] mindfulness, [28] and integrative oncology services [26]. Finally, some small pilots of multidisciplinary care of cancer survivors [36][37][38][39][40] have been reported. These studies only provide preliminary evidence of improved patient experience [36][37][38][39], with one study providing evidence for lower fat consumption [36] and another providing evidence for a reduction in the number of visits to the specialists [40].…”

“…Finally, some small pilots of multidisciplinary care of cancer survivors [36][37][38][39][40] have been reported. These studies only provide preliminary evidence of improved patient experience [36][37][38][39], with one study providing evidence for lower fat consumption [36] and another providing evidence for a reduction in the number of visits to the specialists [40]. However, there are no studies of GMV addressing the needs of marginalized BCS who receive care in public hospital settings that serve individuals with limited income, also called safety net hospitals in the USA.…”