Abstract
BackgroundStrengthening the coordination, continuity and intersectoral cooperation for cancer patients’ during cancer treatment is being underlined by international guidelines and research. General practitioners have assumed a growing role in the cancer patient disease trajectory because of their roles as coordinators and the consistent health provider. However, general practitioners are challenged in providing support for cancer patients both during treatment and in the survivorship phase. General practitioners reported barriers are lack of timely and relevant communication from the oncologist and limited knowledge to guidelines, as well as lack of trust from patients.Therefore, the current study will examine whether a shared video-based consultation between the cancer patient, general practitioner and oncologist can ease general’ challenges and thereby enhance the patient-centeredness for the cancer patients and their perception of intersectoral cooperation and continuity.MethodsThe study is designed as a pragmatic randomised controlled trial for patients starting chemotherapy at the Department of Oncology, Lillebaelt Hospital, Denmark who are listed with a general practitioner in the Region of Southern Denmark. We intend to include 278 adults diagnosed with colorectal, breast, lung, gynecologic or prostate cancer.The intervention group will receive the “Partnership intervention” which consists of one or more video-consultations between the cancer patient, general practitioner and oncologist. The consultations are estimated to last between 10 and 20 min. The specific aims of the consultation are, summary of the patient trajectory, sharing of knowledge regarding comorbidity, psychosocial resources and needs, physical well-being, medicine, anxiety and depression symptoms, spouses, workability and late complication and side-effects to the cancer treatment.DiscussionVideo-based consultation that brings the cancer patient, the general practitioner and the oncologist together in the early phase of treatment may facilitate a sense of partnership that is powerful enough to improve the patient’s perception of intersectoral cooperation, continuity of cancer care and health-related quality of life.Trial registrationClincialTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02716168. Date of registration: 03.03.2016.
Highlights
Strengthening the coordination, continuity and intersectoral cooperation for cancer patients’ during cancer treatment is being underlined by international guidelines and research
International guidelines have underlined the importance of strengthening the coordination and continuity of care during and following cancer treatment
We hypothesised that bringing the General practitioner (GP) and oncologist face-to-face in a shared video-consultation with the cancer patient might address some of the problematic issues for the patient, and enhance their perception of continuity of care
Summary
This study is designed and reported according to the Medical Research Council guidance on complex interventions [25, 26] and the SPIRIT-PRO guideline [27]. Secondary outcomes - GPs All GPs in the control group and GPs in the intervention group will receive a questionnaire 4 months after the enrolment of the patient They are asked to assess their satisfaction with own contribution to patient health care including treatment of comorbidities, the relevance of patient visits in general practice, the experience of overall coordination of treatment, as well as communication and cooperation with the oncological department. Methods: data collection, management and analysis Plan for assessment and collection of outcomes (Table 2) Patients will fill in a paper-based baseline questionnaire before randomisation, and electronic follow-up questionnaires will be sent to them at the email address obtained at enrolment.
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