Patient centered outcomes for skin cancer treatment: A single day Delphi process to assess the importance of treatment themes to a representative panel of skin cancer patients.

Abstract

e21079 Background: Increased emphasis is being placed on patient centered outcomes. There is little existing literature on the patient population's prioritization of outcomes in skin cancer care. A PCORI-supported Patient Outcomes Summit was organized to address this. Methods: Patients were recruited from patient support groups, solicitation of ASDS member practices, as well as personal recruitment of patients from the practices of the investigators. A one-day Patient Outcome Summit was convened in Arlington, VA in August 2016. Patients attendees were given orientation to existing outcomes for skin cancer as well as the Delphi process. They then participated in a two round Delphi process by run non-physician facilitators (AB and EA). Group discussion was used to solicit outcomes for inclusion in the rating rounds. Outcomes were then rated anonymously on a 1 (lowest relevance) to 9 (highest relevance) scale. Patients were then able to view the anonymous feedback of the group and rerate the items as they deemed fit based on the group feedback. Results: 21 patients participated in the Delphi process (5 men and 21 women). 10 were melanoma and 11 were non-melanoma patients. 56 treatment related outcomes and themes were identified. The ten most highly rated themes are shown in the table. Conclusions: The first ever skin cancer patient outcome summit was convened to address the lack of patient-centered data in the skin cancer literature and guide measure development. Some traditional outcomes (recurrence) were identifiend. However, the majority of the themes rated most important by the patient attendees center around inclusion of the patient in the decision making process and the physician-patient communication. Increased emphasis and education in these domains may drive increased patient satisfaction in skin cancer care. [Table: see text]