A team from Atrium Health and Wake Forest University School of Medicine has been approved for funding by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to implement electronic monitoring of patients’ self-reported symptoms during cancer treatment.
Patients undergoing cancer treatment often experience distressing symptoms such as fatigue, pain and nausea. Managing these symptoms, which can stem from both the disease and its treatment, is a key component of high-quality cancer care and can enhance patients’ well-being, decrease visits to the hospital and improve treatment adherence.
The project will be led by Kevin High, M.D., vice chief academic officer of the academic learning health system for Advocate Health and professor of medicine/infectious diseases at Wake Forest University School of Medicine; Dianna Howard, M.D., deputy chief clinical officer at Atrium Health Levine Cancer and professor of hematology and oncology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine; and Kathryn Weaver, Ph.D. M.P.H., professor of social sciences and health policy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Titled Monitoring Electronic Patient-Reported Outcomes During Cancer Treatment - Atrium Health, the initiative will be implemented across 44 oncology care delivery sites within Atrium Health Levine Cancer, which includes locations in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina.
“This project empowers the patient,” Howard said. “By leveraging electronic patient-reported outcomes, we can ensure that patients’ voices are heard, and their symptoms are managed more effectively, even when they are not physically present in the clinic.”
The project is expected to include more than 3,500 patients and demonstrate improvements in key health care outcomes, including reduced emergency department visits, unplanned hospitalizations and missed appointments.
This project will implement findings from a PCORI-funded patient-centered comparative clinical effectiveness study demonstrating improved symptom control, physical function and health-related quality of life among patients who completed electronic patient-reported outcome surveys compared with those who received usual care.
Atrium Health is a participant in PCORI’s Health Systems Implementation Initiative (HSII) and was selected for funding through a PCORI funding opportunity recruiting HSII participants to promote evidence-based practice based on findings generated from PCORI-funded patient-centered CER. HSII aims to reduce the estimated 17-year gap between evidence publication and clinical application. This initiative recognizes that health systems’ practical experience and real-world insights are crucial for sustainable, large-scale implementation of practice-changing findings in clinical care.
“The project is a significant step forward in our mission to provide the highest quality, patient-centered cancer care,” said High. “By integrating electronic patient-reported outcomes into our oncology care delivery, we can better understand and address the needs of our patients, ultimately improving their overall treatment experience and outcomes.”
The funding award has been approved pending completion of PCORI’s business and programmatic review and issuance of a formal award contract.
PCORI is a nonprofit organization with a mission to fund research that will provide patients, their caregivers and clinicians with the evidence-based information needed to make better-informed health care decisions.
Media contact: Myra Wright, mgwright@wakehealth.edu