Cancer Patient Support Call Center: A Program to Inform and Involve Newly Diagnosed Cancer Patients in Their Treatment Decisions
Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: The philosophy of health care has recently shifted away from paternalistic care towards empowering patients to become increasingly informed and involved in their medical decision making. Despite theoretical support from health care agencies and professional organizations,achieving informed, shared decision-making (SDM) between patient and provider is extremely challenging in the current health care system. Numerous barriers exist that prevent providers from engaging in this practice, and inhibit patients' ability to successfully become informed and involved in medical decision-making. With these challenges come opportunities for novel, innovative programs to encourage, incentivize, and facilitate the steps needed for successful SDM between an informed, involved patient, and an accommodating provider. Programs that perpetuate SDM on both the systematic delivery of health care, as well as the interpersonal level are essential. The purpose of this Master's Paper is to plan the organization, implementation, delivery, and evaluation of a program, the Cancer Patient Support Call Center (PSCC), that improves the treatment decision-making process between patients newly diagnosed with cancer and their treating physicians. In collaboration with faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health and Dr. Jeff Belkora, at the University of California, San Francisco, we will explore the shortcomings of the current decision-making process that inhibit successful SDM in cancer care and review the literature for interventions that address these shortcomings. We will also assess the rationale, context, and relevant theories for designing and implementing an effective, adoptable, and sustainable program. The goals, objectives of our program will be explicitly stated, and the activities needed to reach these goals and objectives will be outlined. Finally, we will design a plan for evaluating the extent to which our goals and objectives are being reached while simultaneously developing strategies for modifying the organization and delivery of our interventions to improve the reach, effectiveness, adoption, and maintenance of our program.
DOI: 10.17615/rsa5-1x18
Author: Johnson, David
Institution: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Language: English
Subfield: General Health Professions
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2955848582