The population of aging cancer survivors and their related healthcare needs are rapidly growing in the United States, necessitating the delivery of high-quality, team-based, patient-centered survivorship care long term. However, the delivery of this continuing care after treatment is complex and involves an increasing number of providers, which often results in uncoordinated, fragmented and/or duplicated care as a result. Promoting team-based, patient-centered continuing care after treatment is currently limited by coordination and communication challenges among providers, a lack of evidence about patients' preferences and expectations for their continuing care and few interventions to support the successful transition from primary treatment to survivorship. The long-term goal of this career development award is to facilitate the candidate's transition into an independent investigator with expertise in designing and implementing interventions to improve the quality and delivery of cancer care.
The aims of this project are: 1) [To examine variation in patients' preferences and expectations for team-based continuing care after breast cancer treatment], 2) to develop and evaluate a personalized, web-based navigation tool to support the transition from cancer treatment to survivorship that promotes team-based care [and 3) to conduct a process evaluation guide the broader implementation of the tool into clinical practice.] Using breast cancer as a model, this study will take advantage of the resources and data from an ongoing, population-based survey study of breast cancer patients with favorable prognosis, to inform the development and evaluation of a patient-focused tool to improve the quality of continuing care after primary treatment. Completion of this study will further our understanding about patient preferences and expectations for continuing care, thus providing critical evidence to support the implementation of patient- centered, team-based care plans for breast cancer survivors and informing policies to improve the quality of ongoing continuing care for cancer patients overall. In addition, this award will also support additional didactic training and experiential learning. A detailed career development plan which complements the research plan has been identified and includes skill development in the following 3 areas, while promoting the overall career development of the candidate: 1) Development and evaluation of health technology interventions 2) Dissemination and implementation science; 3) Clinical context of cancer care delivery and healthcare policy implications. This career development plan also consists of a multi-disciplinary team of experienced mentors from the University of Michigan, which provides excellent resources and has a strong record of success in developing junior research faculty into successful independent investigators.
Despite the rapid growth in the population of aging cancer survivors and their related healthcare needs, the delivery of high-quality, team-based, patient-centered survivorship care long term remains a challenge. This research will further our understanding about patient preferences and expectations for continuing care after breast cancer treatment to inform the development of a personalized, web-based navigation tool to support the transition from treatment to survivorship. Findings from this study will support the implementation of patient- centered, team-based care plans for cancer survivors and inform policies to improve the quality of ongoing continuing care for cancer patients overall.
| Wallner, Lauren P; Li, Yun; Furgal, Allison K C et al. (2017) Patient Preferences for Primary Care Provider Roles in Breast Cancer Survivorship Care. J Clin Oncol 35:2942-2948 |
