Use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in cancer multidisciplinary team meetings: an explorative study based on EU healthcare professionals.

OBJECTIVES: Multidisciplinary teams in cancer care are increasingly using information and communication technology (ICT), hospital health information system (HIS) functionalities and ICT-driven care components. We aimed to explore the use of these tools in multidisciplinary team meetings (MTMs) and to identify the critical challenges posed by their adoption based on the perspective of professionals representatives from European scientific societies. DESIGN: This qualitative study used discussion of cases and focus group technique to generate data. Thematic analysis was applied. SETTING: Healthcare professionals working in a multidisciplinary cancer care environment. PARTICIPANTS: Selection of informants was carried out by European scientific societies in accordance with professionals' degree of experience in adopting the implementation of ICT and from different health systems. RESULTS: Professionals representatives of 9 European scientific societies were involved. Up to 10 ICTs, HIS functionalities and care components are embedded in the informational and decision-making processes along three stages of MTMs. ICTs play a key role in opening MTMs to other institutions (eg, by means of molecular tumour boards) and information types (eg, patient-reported outcome measures), and in contributing to the internal efficiency of teams. While ICTs and care components have their own challenges, the information technology context is characterised by the massive generation of unstructured data, the lack of interoperability between systems from different hospitals and HIS that are conceived to store and classify information rather than to work with it. CONCLUSIONS: The emergence of an MTM model that is better integrated in the wider health system context and incorporates inputs from patients and support systems make traditional meetings more dynamic and interconnected. Although these changes signal a second transition in the development process of multidisciplinary teams, they occur in a context marked by clear gaps between the information and management needs of MTMs and the adequacy of current HIS.

Anticipated help-seeking for cancer symptoms before and after the coronavirus pandemic: results from the Onco-barometer population survey in Spain.

BACKGROUND: The patient interval-the time patients wait before consulting their physician after noticing cancer symptoms-contributes to diagnostic delays. We compared anticipated help-seeking times for cancer symptoms and perceived barriers to help-seeking before and after the coronavirus pandemic. METHODS: Two waves (pre-Coronavirus: February 2020, N = 3269; and post-Coronavirus: August 2020, N = 1500) of the Spanish Onco-barometer population survey were compared. The international ABC instrument was administered. Pre-post comparisons were performed using multiple logistic and Poisson regression models. RESULTS: There was a consistent and significant increase in anticipated times to help-seeking for 12 of 13 cancer symptoms, with the largest increases for breast changes (OR = 1.54, 95% CI 1.22-1-96) and unexplained bleeding (OR = 1.50, 1.26-1.79). Respondents were more likely to report barriers to help-seeking in the post wave, most notably worry about what the doctor may find (OR = 1.58, 1.35-1.84) and worry about wasting the doctor's time (OR = 1.48, 1.25-1.74). Women and older individuals were the most affected. CONCLUSIONS: Participants reported longer waiting times to help-seeking for cancer symptoms after the pandemic. There is an urgent need for public interventions encouraging people to consult their physicians with symptoms suggestive of cancer and counteracting the main barriers perceived during the pandemic situation.