Le cure oncologiche e la prospettiva del paziente. Revisione di letteratura e un caso di studio

Several studies from around the world have focused on integrated care models as key solutions to build more effective and efficient healthcare systems that can better meet the needs of patients and the populations served. Often, the coordination is mostly clinical, and consists of the promotion of workgroup activities centered on specific oncological pathologies and in the adoption of common guidelines. However, the process needs to be developed and assessed also with respect to the patient perspective and patient experience. The purposes of this research are to explore the relationship between the integration of cancer services and the patient experience; to describe the representation of ࢠpatient engagementࢠand to examine what kind of application exists in the cancer services; finally to examine if patient experience can be measured. The researchࢠs method consisted of a literature review and analysis, and also it consisted of a case study in the Area Vasta Romagna Cancer Network, via the use of a survey distributed to 310 patients with breast or colo-rectal cancer. From the findings, it appears a positive relationship between integration and patient experience. Also,we identified four main themes of patient experience related to integration: ࢠindividual care providerࢠ, ࢠteam/system care providersࢠ, ࢠmixed approachࢠ, ࢠcontinuity and quality of careࢠ. Furthermore, it was possible to describe a consistent representation of patient engagement models and to identify four main fields of application: ࢠscreeningࢠ, ࢠtreatmentࢠ, ࢠcareࢠ, ࢠresearchࢠ. Finally, the continuity of care framework results an appropriate measure to analyse the integrated cancer care from patient perspective and to evaluate the patient experience over the entire cancer pathway.