Improving serious illness communication for patients with advanced cancer
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/07/220720193717.htm
As the first part of a larger initiative across Dartmouth Cancer Center, a broad team of clinician-researchers, clinical partners, data scientists and even a patient partner have implemented a quality improvement project that was able to increase the occurrence and documentation of these important conversations in two disease-specific medical oncology clinics. Over the 18-month study period, the teams increased their baseline documentation rate from 0% to 70%, or 43 of 63 eligible patients.
Results of the project, "Interdisciplinary Approach and Patient/Family Partners to Improve Serious Illness Conversations in Outpatient Oncology," are newly published in JCO Oncology Practice, an American Society of Clinical Oncology journal.