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Analysis of Patient-Physician Concordance in the Understanding of Chemotherapy Treatment Plans Among Patients With Cancer.

ABSTRACT: Importance:The treatment plans of patients with cancer involve multiple modalities that oncologists need to explain to patients. One such modality is chemotherapy, in which information about the goals, duration, and expected complications of therapy are considered fundamental to achieving optimal patient understanding. Therefore, effective communication between patients and their treating physicians is important to ensure patient adherence to treatment and achieve better outcomes. Objective:To investigate the concordance in the understanding of chemotherapy treatment plans between patients and their treating oncologists and to identify the potential factors associated with concordance. Design, Setting, and Participants:A cross-sectional study was conducted among adult patients (aged >18 years) with cancer who consented to receive chemotherapy between October 4, 2017, and November 8, 2018. The study also included the treating oncologists of patients receiving chemotherapy. An interview-based structured questionnaire was administered in both inpatient and outpatient settings at the Princess Noorah Oncology Center in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The demographic data of patients and physicians were obtained from the ARIA Oncology Information System, a chemotherapy-prescribing software database used at the center. Patients who had a personal history of cancer or were unwilling to be involved in the decision-making process were excluded. Data were analyzed from November 15 to December 20, 2018. Exposures:Patients' comprehension and concordance with their treating physicians regarding the aspects of the intended treatment plan. Main Outcomes and Measures:The main outcomes measured were the patient-physician concordance level in the understanding of treatment plans and the identification of patient-related and physician-related factors associated with the level of concordance. Results:A total of 151 adult patients (77 men [51.0%] and 74 women [49.0%]) were interviewed. Of those, 144 patients (75.5%) were younger than 60 years, and 52 patients (34.4%) had a college or advanced degree. A total of 20 treating oncologists were interviewed, of whom 14 (70.0%) were men and 6 (30.0%) were women. Arabic was the primary language of 19 oncologists (95.0%), and 19 oncologists (95.0%) had medical practice experience outside of Saudi Arabia. Only 20 patients (13.7%) had full concordance with their physicians regarding the aspects of their treatment plans. The remaining 131 patients (86.2%) had discordance with 1 or more aspect of their treatment plans. The most common aspect of discordance was the planned duration of the chemotherapy regimen, with 104 patients (68.4%) having full discordance. Full patient-physician concordance was more likely among patients with college or advanced degrees (?21?=?17.73; P?40 years) compared with younger physicians (aged 30-40 years) were more likely to achieve higher rates of full patient-physician concordance, whereas older patients (>60 years) were associated with only partial concordance compared with patients younger than 60 years (?21?=?5.84; P?=?.008), with an AR of 2.7. Conclusions and Relevance:Most patients showed suboptimal understanding of aspects of their chemotherapy treatment plans. More effort and time should be dedicated to enhancing the understanding of chemotherapy plans among patients with lower educational levels. In addition, self-report surveys that evaluate patients' understanding of their chemotherapy treatment plans should be developed and added to the informed consent process to objectively assess how much a patient understands and to develop a stepwise patient education program that targets patients with the lowest levels of understanding.

SUBMITTER: Almalki H

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7054829 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Analysis of Patient-Physician Concordance in the Understanding of Chemotherapy Treatment Plans Among Patients With Cancer.

Almalki Hani H Absi Ahmed A Alghamdi Abdulrahman A Alsalmi Mohammed M Khan Muhammad M

JAMA network open 20200302 3

<h4>Importance</h4>The treatment plans of patients with cancer involve multiple modalities that oncologists need to explain to patients. One such modality is chemotherapy, in which information about the goals, duration, and expected complications of therapy are considered fundamental to achieving optimal patient understanding. Therefore, effective communication between patients and their treating physicians is important to ensure patient adherence to treatment and achieve better outcomes.<h4>Obj ...[more]

PMID: 32125427

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Project description:ImportanceTiered physician network (TPN) health plans sort physicians into tiers based on their cost and quality, and patients pay lower copays for visits with physicians in the lower-cost and better-quality tiers. When the plans are first introduced, they lead patients to seek care from higher-value physicians.ObjectivesTo examine whether TPNs are associated with patient choice of physician when the plans have been in place for 8 to 12 years and whether there are inequities in patient out-of-pocket costs associated with inequities in access to physicians in lower-copay tiers.Design, setting, and participantsThis cross-sectional study comprising 46 645 physicians and 585 399 patients in TPNs, including 54 683 patients who had a new patient visit with a physician in a TPN, used health insurance claims data from a large employer purchaser from July 1, 2014, to June 30, 2019. Statistical analysis was performed from November 2020 to August 2023.ExposureEvaluation and management visit with a physician in a TPN.Main outcomes and measuresMain outcomes were new patient market share per physician-carrier-zip code-year, distance from centroid of patient zip code to centroid of zip code of nearest low- or medium-copay physician, and mean TPN physician office visit copay per patient. A regression discontinuity design was used to estimate the association of a physician's tier ranking, and a difference-in-differences analysis was used to estimate the association of copayment differences across tiers with market share among new patients. Equity in access was measured by comparing travel distance to the nearest physician in a low-copay or medium-copay tier and mean copayments across patient incomes.ResultsThe main analysis sample included 46 645 physician-carrier-zip code-year observations, 9506 (20.4%) of which were in the low-copay tier, 31 798 (68.2%) in the medium-copay tier, and 5341 (11.5%) in the high-copay tier. The 54 683 new patients in the sample had a mean (SD) age of 46.4 (16.7) years and included 33 542 women (61.3%). There was no association of having a worse tier ranking (0.045 percentage points [95% CI, -0.058 to 0.148 percentage points]) or of copayment differences between tiers (0.001 percentage points [95% CI, -0.002 to 0.004 percentage points]) with physician market share among new patients. The patients with the lowest income paid slightly lower mean (SD) copayments for office visits to a TPN physician than the patients with high income ($48.08 [$16.42] vs $51.59 [$16.79], a 6.8% difference).Conclusions and relevanceIn this cross-sectional study of TPN health plans, there was no association between physician tier ranking and physician market share among any group of patients. These findings suggest there are limitations in TPNs' steering of patients toward high-value physicians. These plans were not associated with exacerbated health inequity in this setting.

Project description:PURPOSE:Accurately tracking health-related quality-of-life after radical prostatectomy is critical to counseling patients and improving technique. Physicians consistently overestimate functional recovery. We measured concordance between surgeon-assessed and patient-reported outcomes and evaluated a novel method to provide feedback to surgeons. MATERIALS AND METHODS:Men treated with radical prostatectomy self-completed the International Index of Erectile Function-6 questionnaire at each postoperative visit. Separately, physicians graded sexual function on a 5-point scale. International Index of Erectile Function -6 score<22 and grade ?3 defined patient-reported and physician-assessed erectile dysfunction (ED), respectively. Feedback on concordance was given to physicians starting in May 2013 with the implementation of the Amplio feedback system. Chi-square tests were used to assess agreement proportions and linear regression to evaluate changes in agreement after implementation. RESULTS:From 2009 to 2015, 3,053 men completed at least 1 postprostatectomy questionnaire and had a concurrent independent physician-reported outcome. Prior to implementation of feedback in 2013, patients and physicians were consistent as to ED 83% of the time; in 10% of cases, physicians overestimated function; in 7% of cases, physicians, but not patients reported ED. Agreement increased after implementation of feedback but this was not statistically significant, likely owing to a ceiling effect. Supporting this hypothesis, increase in agreement postfeedback was greater during late follow-up (?12mo), where baseline agreement was lower compared to earlier follow-up. CONCLUSIONS:Agreement was higher than expected at baseline; implementation of feedback regarding discrepancies between patient-reported and physician-assessed outcomes did not further improve agreement significantly. Our observed high rate of agreement may be partly attributed to our institutional practice of systematically capturing patient-reported outcomes as part of normal clinical care.

Dataset Information

Analysis of Patient-Physician Concordance in the Understanding of Chemotherapy Treatment Plans Among Patients With Cancer.

Publications

Analysis of Patient-Physician Concordance in the Understanding of Chemotherapy Treatment Plans Among Patients With Cancer.

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