Patient-reported outcomes and personalised cancer care

Person-centred care … who would have thought it could be so hard to achieve within multi-disciplinary-team care!

The benefits and challenges of using patient-reported outcomes (PRO) to guide personalised care are described in a short article by Prof Bogda Koczwara and other oncology clinicians and researchers, published in the Medical Journal of Australia (17 May 2021).

Evidence shows benefits such as earlier identification and responses to patients’ concerns, yet the practical challenges include

  • routine patient reporting (what, when, how …),
  • coordination and communication of the health care responses (who, when, what …) and
  • reorienting expectations towards new ways for patients, carers and clinicians to engage in care.

Better understanding of the issues and diversity of consumer and health system perspectives is needed, to achieve more personalised cancer care. 

We appreciate that it isn’t easy to change ‘the way things are usually done’- it is hard for all of us.

Patient‐reported outcomes and personalised cancer care

Bogda Koczwara, James Bonnamy, Peggy Briggs, Bena Brown, Phyllis N Butow, Raymond J Chan, Richard J Cohn, Afaf Girgis, Michael Jefford, David JL Joske, Sharon Licqurish, Gillian Mackay, Christobel M Saunders and Kate Webber | Med J Aust 2021; 214(9):406-408.e1. 

Julie Marker

Three times metastatic colon cancer survivor.