Electronic shared care plan for long term care of cancer patients

Chief Investigator

Mark Harris, Jane Taggart, Ben Harris-Roxas, Andrew Knight; SESLHD: Melvin Chin, Winston Liauw, Carole Harris; CESPHN: Brendan Goodger; Griffith University: Kylie Vuong; Consumer: Phil Mendoza-Jones

Project Coordinator

Jane Taggart

Project Rationale 

More people are living with and beyond cancer as the 5 year survival rate increases. Current models of cancer follow-up care involve either specialist services continuing to provide routine care for long periods or transfer of care to general practice with little or no specialist involvement. There is also limited integration and communication.    Our previous research demonstrated that a shared model of care is acceptable to patients and providers. 

Project Aim/s

To establish and evaluate a web-based interactive cancer shared care plan that supports long term integrated care of cancer patients for colorectal and breast cancers.  

To evaluate a GPCanShare Assessment for patients with lung cancer.

Project Design and Method

Our evaluation studies include:

• Colorectal cancer shared e-care plan for follow-up
• Breast and colorectal cancer shared e-care plans compared with usual follow-up care
• GPCanShare Assessment for lung cancer (Chief Investigator: Melvin Chin)

These studies are being conducted between Cancer Service specialists, GPs and patients in the South Eastern Sydney Local Health District.

The intervention for the colorectal and breast cancer studies is a model of shared care that uses an e-care plan for sharing the tasks and responsibilities and for communicating results and monitoring care between the care team, including the patient. The e-care plan is integrated with GP clinical information systems.

The intervention for the lung cancer study is a GPCanShare Assessment that identifies aspects of care that can be shared with a GP.

Publication

• Taggart J, Chin M, Liauw W, Goldstein D, Dolezal A, Plahn J, Harris MF. Challenges and solutions to sharing a cancer follow-up e-care plan between a cancer service and general practice. Public Health Res Pract. 2021;31(2):e31122108. First published 30 April 2021. https://doi.org/10.17061/phrp31122108

Contact

Jane Taggart

Phone: 02 9385 1511

Email: J.Taggart@unsw.edu.au

Key Partners

SESLHD, CESPHN

Funding

• Translational Cancer Research Network
• SESLHD The Inspiring Ideas Challenge Program
• Cancer Institute NSW Innovation Grant
• Avant Foundation Grant