The LIVESTRONG essential elements of survivorship care: Advancing quality survivorship care in clinical care settings.

Abstract

155 Background: The American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer (COC) has set a 2015 deadline for oncology practices to comply with new patient-centered standards of care to maintain accreditation. Despite this mandate, there is not a strong evidence base on best practices, or guidance on how to implement quality survivorship care services. In September 2011, the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and the LIVESTRONG Survivorship Center of Excellence Network (Network) convened researchers, providers, advocates, and cancer survivors who identified and prioritized a list of 20 Essential Elements of survivorship care. LAF and the Network continued work to refine this list with input from stakeholders with the goal of disseminating a framework for survivorship care delivery and advancing a research agenda to strengthen the evidence base for implementing these elements as standard care. Methods: LAF and the Network have refined definitions of the Essential Elements through an iterative process and in late 2012 will facilitate a technology-mediated consensus-building process among a broad group of stakeholders. Results: Refinement of the Essential Elements included defining each element in such detail that “basic” and “enriched” levels of implementation are described to guide providers in real-world settings. This work outlines a research agenda aimed to strengthen the evidence-base of the Essential Elements’ effectiveness in improving survivors’ outcomes. In October 2012, the refined definitions will be disseminated to a broad stakeholder audience and subject to review. Details of this iterative process, resulting definitions, and open-forum feedback will be reported here. Conclusions: Once complete, the Essential Elements will represent a consensus-driven platform that provides the cancer care community with a blueprint for the development and implementation of high-quality survivorship care and research. Additionally, the finalized Essential Elements will further facilitate the broad adoption of the new COC standards including the provision of a treatment summary and survivorship care plans, palliative care, psychosocial distress screening, and care coordination.