Assessing the Patient Experience in Cancer Care

Communication is an important component of comprehensive cancer care impacting patient
satisfaction, adherence, and quality of life. The wide array of issues addressed in cancer
clinical interactions makes communicating about a broad range of topics (including quality
of life, communication, symptom control, complementary/alternative therapies, costs,
treatment burden, prognosis, anxiety, side-effects, sexual function, palliative care
options, etc.) especially interesting and potentially challenging. Some of these topics may
not be routinely addressed in the clinical interaction or may require consultative support
from other members of the comprehensive cancer care team. One frequently overlooked critical
element in research on communication between cancer clinicians, their patients, and their
primary care clinicians is describing real-time consultations between patients and their
clinicians. These interactions provide rich material for assessing key psycho-social
dynamics and identifying issues that patients find important in their care. In order to
devise systems of care that optimize the patient experience, it is critical that clinicians
and researchers understand, appreciate, and systematically characterize the richness and
complexity of the decision-making process in routine cancer consultations between cancer
patients and their treating clinicians. This study seeks to assess the patient experience in
cancer care by observing patients and their physicians in their clinical interactions and
following them for several months to see how their care went. By describing in-depth the
conversations and experiences of patients in these clinical interactions, this study will
lay the foundation for practice-based interventions to optimize patients' interactions with
their cancer care teams.