Personalized symptom management: a quality improvement collaborative for implementation of patient reported outcomes (PROs) in 'real-world' oncology multisite practices.

Background: Little research has focused on implementation of electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (e-PROs) for meaningful use in patient management in 'real-world' oncology practices. Our quality improvement collaborative used multi-faceted implementation strategies including audit and feedback, disease-site champions and practice coaching, core training of clinicians in a person-centered clinical method for use of e-PROs in shared treatment planning and patient activation, ongoing educational outreach and shared collaborative learnings to facilitate integration of e-PROs data in multi-sites in Ontario and Quebec, Canada for personalized management of generic and targeted symptoms of pain, fatigue, and emotional distress (depression, anxiety).

Patients And Methods: We used a mixed-methods (qualitative and quantitative data) program evaluation design to assess process/implementation outcomes including e-PROs completion rates, acceptability/use from the perspective of patients/clinicians, and patient experience (surveys, qualitative focus groups).

Psychosocial adjustment to a prostate cancer diagnosis in a cohort of radical prostatectomy patients in Quebec, Canada.

Objective: The psychosocial impact of a prostate cancer diagnosis significantly affects a patient's quality of life. We studied patient communication at the time of diagnosis and its impact on psychosocial adjustment of patients.

Methods: This is a cross-sectional data analysis from self-administered questionnaires in the PROCURE biobank study, consisting of a cohort of patients with localized prostate cancer undergoing radical prostatectomy in Québec (Canada), 2006 to 2013.

The development and impact of a new Psychosocial Oncology Program.

Cancer patients and their families face multiple psychosocial challenges when coping with illness, including emotional distress. The inability to detect and respond appropriately to these needs lead to greater suffering. Consistent with the philosophy of comprehensive care, innovative psychosocial oncology programs need to be created in meeting these complex needs.