Lead researcher
Victoria White (CBRC); Mariko Carey (CBRC); Melanie Wakefield (CBRC); Graham Giles (CEC); Helen Farrugia (VCR); Sandra Ieropoli (CBRC); Melinda Craike(CBRC); David Hill (CCV)
Years funded
2007 - Current
The PROSPECT program (Patient Responses: an Ongoing Survey of People Experiencing Cancer Treatment) is joint initiative of CBRC and the Cancer Epidemiology Centre (CEC) that commenced in 2007. The project aims to monitoring the experiences of Victorian cancer patients, recruiting patients at approximately 6 months post-diagnosis from the population-based Victorian Cancer Registry (VCR), which is housed within the CEC.
The first step of the project was the development of an appropriate tool to assess patient experiences of care. A review of the literature revealed deficiencies in most existing instruments. Consequently CBRC developed an instrument to assess patients' experiences of care that was appropriate for all cancer patients using the NHRMC's Psychosocial Guidelines for the Care of Adults with Cancer as a framework. This new instrument called the Critical Cancer Care Events (CCCE) Survey contains 65-items and assesses cancer patients' experiences regarding information provision, distress management and continuity of care at 8 critical phases of the illness trajectory. During 2008 and 2009, a pilot study was undertaken, to test validity, reliability and acceptability of the CCCE. The test-retest reliability of the CCCE, was adequate (range .73 to .85) and the survey was very acceptable to participants.
Currently patients from several rural areas in Victoria are being recruited into the PROSPECT study. PROSPECT will be used as a platform to conduct a variety of studies examining the cancer care experiences of people with cancer. We aim to develop cancer specific modules of the CCCE and to conduct longitudinal studies of cancer patients' experiences.
Contact: Vicki White at cbrc@cancervic.org.au
Publications: Under preparation
Funding Body
Cancer Council Victoria