Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H) is one of six U.S. health-care systems sharing a $9 million grant for new research into improving cancer care. The National Cancer Institute, in association with the Beau Biden Cancer Moonshot Initiative, recently announced the funding of the collaboration.
SIMPRO (symptom management implementation of patient reported outcomes in oncology) will use patient-reported outcomes in the routine practice of oncology providers to improve symptom management and to decrease hospitalizations.
Dartmouth-Hitchcock Chair of Surgery Sandra Wong, MD, is a co-principal investigator on the project, and is leading the D-H effort, and joined by D-H Chief Health Information Officer Peter Solberg, MD, and NCCC medical oncologist Gabriel Brooks, MD, as co-investigators. “Post-operative symptom management is an underutilized strategy for improving surgical care,” says Wong. “This work will help us understand how surgeons should implement ePROs especially for patients who travel great distances for their operations.”
In addition to D-H, the other five collaborating sites are Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center in Boston, Baptist Memorial Medical Center in Memphis, Lifespan Cancer Institute in Rhode Island, West Virginia University Cancer Institute, and Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. To accomplish this research project, the SIMPRO team will work with Epic, the most widely-used comprehensive health record software and which is used by all six participating institutions.
Patients’ smart devices will enable a secure connection to their cancer care team via the electronic health record, and facilitate symptom tracking following cancer surgery or chemotherapy. The study will test whether monitoring the symptoms patients experience and providing coaching on how to manage them can decrease the need for hospitalizations and emergency room visits.
For more information about this project, visit the SIMPRO Research Center.
Current Issue - April 2024