Journal of oncology practice
-
The prevalence and severity of pain have not been well described among oncology patients in ambulatory care. To better understand the burden of pain among patients with advanced cancer, we examined the prevalence of pain reported during office and treatment visits. ⋯ Younger age, minority race, and recent onset of advanced disease are associated with severe pain among patients with cancer. Recognizing these high-risk groups could inform targeted interventions to address pain care in ambulatory patients with advanced cancer.
-
Recent publications have promoted physician-patient communication on cost as a means of decreasing overall spending and minimizing patients' financial burden in oncology. No study has assessed patients' perspectives on cost communication in oncology. We sought to describe oncology patients' attitudes toward cost communication, explore potential predictors for patients' communication preferences, and assess how patients with cancer consider cost when making management decisions. ⋯ Patients' comfort with and desire to discuss cancer costs exceed that of oncologists, suggesting a need to educate oncologists on this important topic. A patient's desire to understand treatment-associated cost does not equate with a desire for cost to influence medical decision making.
-
Social media channels such as Twitter are gaining increasing acceptance as mechanisms for instantaneous scientific dialogue. Professional medical societies such as ASCO are using social media to expand the reach of scientific communications at and around their scientific meetings. This article examines the how Twitter use by oncologists expanded at the ASCO Annual Meetings from 2010 to 2011. ⋯ Despite the 140-character limit, Twitter was successfully used by physicians at the 2010 and 2011 ASCO Annual Meetings to engage in clinical discussions, whether or not an author was on site as a live attendee. Twitter usage grew significantly from 2010 to 2011. Professional societies should monitor these phenomena to enhance annual meeting attendee user experience.
-
The National Comprehensive Cancer Network's (NCCN) palliative care (PC) guidelines recommend screening all patients for PC issues at the first visit with their oncologist and at subsequent, clinically relevant times. Criteria for referral to a PC specialist are also part of the guideline. We evaluated the feasibility of screening for PC needs in outpatients attending one GI oncology practice specializing in colorectal cancer and neuroendocrine tumors. ⋯ Screening identified 7% to 17% of patients in this busy clinic as having PC issues and 13% who might benefit from specialist referral. But even this simple method adds considerably to the clinic workload, so the benefits of implementing routine screening need to be carefully evaluated.
-
We sought to describe the documentation, frequency, and timing of discussions about patient preferences for care and to examine patterns of palliative care and hospice use among patients with advanced cancer. ⋯ Despite high rates of preference documentation, there remains room for improvement. Providers may need to be helped to identify patients earlier in their trajectory for appropriate palliative care services, and future work should focus on developing useful alternatives to advance directives for adequately documenting patient preferences.