This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Walling, A. Articles by Wenger, N. S. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Walling, A. Articles by Wenger, N. S. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

Evidence-Based Recommendations for Information and Care Planning in Cancer Care

Anne Walling, Karl A. Lorenz, Sydney M. Dy, Arash Naeim, Homayoon Sanati, Steven M. Asch, Neil S. Wenger

From the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California at Los Angeles; VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles; RAND Health, Santa Monica; University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA; and Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD

Corresponding author: Anne M. Walling, MD, 911 Broxton Ave #3D, Los Angeles, CA 90024; e-mail: awalling{at}mednet.ucla.edu

The practice of oncology is characterized by challenging communication tasks that make it difficult to ensure optimal physician-patient information sharing and care planning. Discussions of diagnosis, prognosis, and patient goals are essential processes that inform decisions. However, data suggest that there are deficiencies in this area. We conducted a systematic review to identify the evidence supporting high-quality clinical practices for information and care planning in the context of cancer care as part of the RAND Cancer Quality–Assessing Symptoms, Side Effects, and Indicators of Supportive Treatment Project. Domains of information and care planning that are important for high-quality cancer care include integration of palliation into cancer care, advance care planning, sentinel events as markers for the need to readdress a patient's goals of care, and continuity of care planning. The standards presented here for information and care planning in cancer care should be incorporated into care pathways and should become the expectation rather than the exception.

Supported by a grant from Amgen Inc to the RAND Corporation.

Authors’ disclosures of potential conflicts of interest and author contributions are found at the end of this article.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				K. A. Lorenz Progress in Quality-of-Care Research and Hope for Supportive Cancer Care J. Clin. Oncol., August 10, 2008; 26(23): 3821 - 3823. [Full Text] [PDF]