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Quality indicators for the diagnosis and surgical management of breast cancer in South Africa.

ABSTRACT: INTRODUCTION:Quality indicators (QIs) for breast cancer care have been developed and applied in high-income countries and contributed to improved quality of care and patient outcomes over time. MATERIALS AND METHODS:A modified Delphi process was used to derive expert consensus. Potential QIs were rated by a panel of 17 breast cancer experts from various subspecialties and across South African provinces. Each QI was rated according to importance to measure, scientific acceptability and feasibility. Scoring ranged from 1 (no agreement) to 5 (strong agreement). Inclusion thresholds were set a priori at mean ratings ?4 with a coefficient variation of ?25%. Levels of evidence were determined for each indicator. RESULTS:The literature review identified 790 potential QIs. After categorisation and removal of duplicates, 52 remained for panel review. There was strong consensus for 47 which were merged to 30 QIs by exclusion of similar indicators and indicator grouping. The final set included eight QIs with level I or II evidence and two QIs with level III evidence which were deemed "mandatory" due to clinical priority and impact on care. The remaining QIs with lower-level evidence were grouped as eight "recommended" QIs (regarded as standard of care) and twelve "optional" QIs (not regarded as standard of care). CONCLUSION:A regional set of QIs was developed to facilitate standardised treatment and auditing of surgical care for breast cancer patients in South Africa. Routine monitoring of the ten mandatory QIs, which were selected to have the most substantial impact on patient outcome, is proposed.

SUBMITTER: Nietz S

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7593621 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Quality indicators for the diagnosis and surgical management of breast cancer in South Africa.

Nietz Sarah S Ruff Paul P Chen Wenlong Carl WC O'Neil Daniel S DS Norris Shane A SA

Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland) 20201005

<h4>Introduction</h4>Quality indicators (QIs) for breast cancer care have been developed and applied in high-income countries and contributed to improved quality of care and patient outcomes over time.<h4>Materials and methods</h4>A modified Delphi process was used to derive expert consensus. Potential QIs were rated by a panel of 17 breast cancer experts from various subspecialties and across South African provinces. Each QI was rated according to importance to measure, scientific acceptability ...[more]

PMID: 33120084

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Project description:BACKGROUND:The European Society of Breast Cancer Specialists (EUSOMA), which aims to standardize the quality of patient care in Europe, has defined quality indicators (QIs) for breast cancer (BC) care to assess compliance to current care standards. These QIs are a useful tool to evaluate care organizations. Only population-based studies are able to assess health system performance in "real-life" situations. This population-based study aimed to describe compliance with several EUSOMA QIs overall and according to patient and organizational factors in France. METHODS:1 560 adult women with primary invasive non-metastatic BC diagnosed in 2012 were randomly selected among all incident BC from 16 French geographical areas covered by cancer registries. Twelve EUSOMA QIs were selected regarding diagnosis, treatment and staging. RESULTS:The minimum standard as proposed by EUSOMA was met for nine QIs related to pre-operative definitive diagnosis, multidisciplinary discussion and treatment (single surgery, breast conserving surgery (BCS) for small BC (<3cm), radiotherapy after BCS or mastectomy for regional BC (pN?2a), hormonotherapy, adjuvant chemotherapy and trastuzumab). Low compliance was observed for sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) and staging imaging. Adherence to guidelines was usually lower in older patients and in patients with comorbidities. Multidisciplinary discussion was positively related to adherence to guidelines for diagnosis, staging practices (SNLB, imaging) and systemic treatments. Compliance also varied by area of residence and by place of first treatment. CONCLUSION:This study provides the first current, comprehensive overview of BC quality care at a population level in France. The guidelines were correctly applied in percentage satisfying the EUSOMA standards for the diagnosis and treatment of BC, although staging practices (SLNB, imaging) can be improved. These results highlight the need for continuous measurement of adherence to guidelines to improve BC care.

Dataset Information

Quality indicators for the diagnosis and surgical management of breast cancer in South Africa.

Publications

Quality indicators for the diagnosis and surgical management of breast cancer in South Africa.

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