How European primary care practitioners think the timeliness of cancer diagnosis can be improved: a thematic analysis
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
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.
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.
Date Issued
2019-09-24
Date Acceptance
2019-09-10
Citation
BMJ Open, 2019, 9 (9), pp.1-10
ISSN
2044-6055
Publisher
BMJ Journals
Start Page
1
End Page
10
Journal / Book Title
BMJ Open
Volume
9
Issue
9
Copyright Statement
© 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.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000497787600252&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Subjects
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Medicine, General & Internal
General & Internal Medicine
Delivery of Health Care
Primary Health Care
General Practitioners
Cancer
Diagnosis
Consultation and Referral
LUNG-CANCER
LONG-TERM
SURVIVAL
STAGE
TIMES
PERCEPTIONS
AWARENESS
INTERVALS
OUTCOMES
ACCESS
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
ARTN e030169
Date Publish Online
2019-09-24