Development of a tool for palliative care needs assessment and intervention: mixed methods research at a Swiss tertiary oncology clinic.

Background: Palliative care interventions improve quality-of-life for advanced cancer patients and their caregivers. The frequency and quality of service provision could be improved by a clinical tool that helps oncology professionals to assess unmet needs for palliative care interventions and to structure the interventions delivered. This paper aims to answer the following research question: what do oncology professionals and cancer patients view as important elements in a clinical tool for assessing unmet palliative care needs? Based on the feedback from professionals and patients, we developed and refined an intervention-focused clinical tool for use in cancer care.

Tools for guiding interventions to address patient-perceived multidimensional unmet healthcare needs in palliative care: systematic literature review.

Context: The unmet needs of patients with advanced disease are indicative of the patient centredness of healthcare. By tracking unmet needs in clinical practice, palliative interventions are aligned with patient priorities, and clinicians receive support in intervention delivery decisions for patients with overlapping, complex needs.

Objective: Identify tools used in everyday clinical practice for the purpose of identifying and addressing unmet healthcare needs for patients with advanced disease.