Abstract
Survivorship care plans (SCPs) have been recommended as tools to improve care coordination and outcomes for cancer survivors. SCPs are increasingly being provided to survivors and their primary care providers. However, most primary care providers remain unaware of SCPs, limiting their potential benefit. Best practices for educating primary care providers regarding SCP existence and content are needed. We developed an education program to inform primary care providers of the existence, content, and potential uses for SCPs. The education program consisted of a 15-min presentation highlighting SCP basics presented at mandatory primary care faculty meetings. An anonymous survey was electronically administered via email (n = 287 addresses) to evaluate experience with and basic knowledge of SCPs pre- and post-education. A total of 101 primary care advanced practice providers (APPs) and physicians (35% response rate) completed the baseline survey with only 23% reporting prior receipt of a SCP. Only 9% could identify the SCP location within the electronic health record (EHR). Following the education program, primary care physicians and APPs demonstrated a significant improvement in SCP knowledge, including improvement in their ability to locate one within the EHR (9 vs 59%, p < 0.0001). A brief educational program containing information about SCP existence, content, and location in the EHR increased primary care physician and APP knowledge in these areas, which are prerequisites for using SCP in clinical practice.
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Funding
This work was supported by the NCI Cancer Center Support Grant P30 CA014520 and Aging and Cancer Program P20 CA103697, a UW Division of General Internal Medicine grant and School of Medicine and Public Health Research Honors Program. AJT received support from the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program, through the NIH National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), grants UL1TR000427and KL2TR000428.
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SMD: none
JEH: none
ZL: none
ERT: none
SAK: none
DAF: none
JMS: none
LGW: ElucentMedical
MES: none
AJT: Epic Systems, Corp (family member)
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Donohue, S., Haine, J.E., Li, Z. et al. The Impact of a Primary Care Education Program Regarding Cancer Survivorship Care Plans: Results from an Engineering, Primary Care, and Oncology Collaborative for Survivorship Health. J Canc Educ 34, 154–160 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-017-1281-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13187-017-1281-9