TY - JOUR
T1 - How European primary care practitioners think the timeliness of cancer diagnosis can be improved
T2 - A thematic analysis
AU - Harris, Michael
AU - Thulesius, Hans
AU - Neves, Ana Luísa
AU - Harker, Sophie
AU - Koskela, Tuomas
AU - Petek, Davorina
AU - Hoffman, Robert
AU - Brekke, Mette
AU - Buczkowski, Krzysztof
AU - Buono, Nicola
AU - Costiug, Emiliana
AU - Dinant, Geert Jan
AU - Foreva, Gergana
AU - Jakob, Eva
AU - Marzo-Castillejo, Mercè
AU - Murchie, Peter
AU - Sawicka-Powierza, Jolanta
AU - Schneider, Antonius
AU - Smyrnakis, Emmanouil
AU - Streit, Sven
AU - Taylor, Gordon
AU - Vedsted, Peter
AU - Weltermann, Birgitta
AU - Esteva, Magdalena
N1 - © Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.
PY - 2019/9/24
Y1 - 2019/9/24
N2 - BACKGROUND: National European cancer survival rates vary widely. Prolonged diagnostic intervals are thought to be a key factor in explaining these variations. Primary care practitioners (PCPs) frequently play a crucial role during initial cancer diagnosis; their knowledge could be used to improve the planning of more effective approaches to earlier cancer diagnosis.OBJECTIVES: This study sought the views of PCPs from across Europe on how they thought the timeliness of cancer diagnosis could be improved.DESIGN: In an online survey, a final open-ended question asked PCPs how they thought the speed of diagnosis of cancer in primary care could be improved. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.SETTING: A primary care study, with participating centres in 20 European countries.PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1352 PCPs answered the final survey question, with a median of 48 per country.RESULTS: The main themes identified were: patient-related factors, including health education; care provider-related factors, including continuing medical education; improving communication and interprofessional partnership, particularly between primary and secondary care; factors relating to health system organisation and policies, including improving access to healthcare; easier primary care access to diagnostic tests; and use of information technology. Re-allocation of funding to support timely diagnosis was seen as an issue affecting all of these.CONCLUSIONS: To achieve more timely cancer diagnosis, health systems need to facilitate earlier patient presentation through education and better access to care, have well-educated clinicians with good access to investigations and better information technology, and adequate primary care cancer diagnostic pathway funding.
AB - BACKGROUND: National European cancer survival rates vary widely. Prolonged diagnostic intervals are thought to be a key factor in explaining these variations. Primary care practitioners (PCPs) frequently play a crucial role during initial cancer diagnosis; their knowledge could be used to improve the planning of more effective approaches to earlier cancer diagnosis.OBJECTIVES: This study sought the views of PCPs from across Europe on how they thought the timeliness of cancer diagnosis could be improved.DESIGN: In an online survey, a final open-ended question asked PCPs how they thought the speed of diagnosis of cancer in primary care could be improved. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.SETTING: A primary care study, with participating centres in 20 European countries.PARTICIPANTS: A total of 1352 PCPs answered the final survey question, with a median of 48 per country.RESULTS: The main themes identified were: patient-related factors, including health education; care provider-related factors, including continuing medical education; improving communication and interprofessional partnership, particularly between primary and secondary care; factors relating to health system organisation and policies, including improving access to healthcare; easier primary care access to diagnostic tests; and use of information technology. Re-allocation of funding to support timely diagnosis was seen as an issue affecting all of these.CONCLUSIONS: To achieve more timely cancer diagnosis, health systems need to facilitate earlier patient presentation through education and better access to care, have well-educated clinicians with good access to investigations and better information technology, and adequate primary care cancer diagnostic pathway funding.
KW - Cancer
KW - Consultation and Referral
KW - Delivery of Health Care
KW - Diagnosis
KW - General Practitioners
KW - Primary Health Care
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072596947&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030169
DO - 10.1136/bmjopen-2019-030169
M3 - Article
C2 - 31551382
AN - SCOPUS:85072596947
SN - 2044-6055
VL - 9
SP - 1
EP - 10
JO - BMJ Open
JF - BMJ Open
IS - 9
M1 - e030169
ER -
