Institutional review of compliance with NCCN guidelines for breast cancer: lessons learned from real-time multidimensional synoptic reporting.

BACKGROUND: Variations exist in compliance with NCCN Guidelines. Prior reports of adherence to NCCN Guidelines contain limitations because of lack of contemporary review and incomplete listing of reasons for noncompliance. PURPOSE: To assess institutional compliance and assist national quality improvement strategies through identifying valid reasons for noncompliance. METHODS: Compliance with NCCN Guidelines was recorded prospectively using electronic synoptic templates for patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer treated at a single institution between January 2010 and December 2011. Compliance with NCCN Guidelines was recorded. The accuracy of real-time synoptic auditing methods compared with retrospective chart review and reasons for noncompliance was assessed. SAS 9.3 software was used for data analysis. RESULTS: Compliance with NCCN Guidelines among 395 patients was 94% for initial staging evaluation, 97% for surgery, 91% for chemotherapy, 89% for hormone therapy, 91% for radiation therapy, 85% for follow-up, and 100% for determination of estrogen receptor/progesterone receptor and HER2 status. Age, comorbidities, and stage influenced guideline compliance. The most common reasons for noncompliance were patient refusal, patient choice after shared decision-making, and overuse of testing. Synoptic templated reporting was accurate in 97% patients. CONCLUSIONS: High compliance with NCCN Guidelines was demonstrated. Reasons for noncompliance were identifiable. Compliance and nonadherence can be evaluated quickly with electronic synoptic reporting. This allows real-time action plans to address quality concerns and aids national risk adjustment for comparison and benchmarking.

Recurrent, severe wheezing is associated with morbidity and mortality in adults with sickle cell disease.

Prior studies of asthma in children with sickle cell disease (SCD) were based on reports of a doctor-diagnosis of asthma with limited description of asthma features. Doctor-diagnoses of asthma may represent asthma or wheezing unrelated to asthma. Objectives of this study were to determine if asthma characteristics are present in adults with a doctor-diagnosis of asthma and/or wheezing, and to examine the relationship between doctor-diagnosis of asthma, wheezing and SCD morbidity. This was an observational cohort study of 114 adults with SCD who completed respiratory symptom questionnaires and had serum IgE measurements. A subset of 79 participants completed pulmonary function testing. Survival analysis was based on a mean prospective follow-up of 28 months and data were censored at the time of death or loss to follow-up. Adults reporting a doctor-diagnosis of asthma (N = 34) were more likely to have features of asthma including wheeze, eczema, family history of asthma, and an elevated IgE level (all P < 0.05). However, there was no difference in pain or ACS rate, lung function, or risk of death between adults with and without a doctor-diagnosis of asthma. In contrast, adults who reported recurrent, severe episodes of wheezing (N = 34), regardless of asthma, had twice the rates of pain and ACS, decreased lung function and increased risk of death compared with adults without recurrent, severe wheezing. Asthma features were not associated with recurrent, severe wheezing. Our data suggest that wheezing in SCD may occur independently of asthma and is a marker of disease severity.

Review of ongoing clinical trials in non-small cell lung cancer: a status report for 2009 from the ClinicalTrials.gov website.

INTRODUCTION: Several new agents are being tested in clinical trials for patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A survey of ongoing clinical trials in NSCLC in the ClinicalTrials.gov website would help identify areas that require further attention in the future. METHODS: We conducted a survey of ongoing clinical trials on NSCLC registered in the ClinicalTrials.gov website. The advanced search option was applied using the terms "non small cell lung cancer," "open studies," "interventional," and "adults 18 years or older." RESULTS: Of the 493 eligible trials, 77 (15.6%) were phase III, 92 (18.7%) were phase I, and 240 (48.7%) were phase II trials. Universities were listed as the primary sponsor for 224 (45.4%) trials and pharmaceutical industry for 166 (33.7%) trials. Majority of the trials were multicenter studies (56.8%) and were being conducted exclusively within the United States (51.3%). A large proportion of phase II and III clinical trials (77.2%) were focused on patients with advanced-stage disease. The most frequently used end points were progression-free survival (27.1%) followed by tumor response rate (22.9%) and overall survival (16.6%). Although biomarker analysis was included in 185 (37.5%) trials, only 39 (7.9%) trials used biomarkers for patient selection. CONCLUSIONS: Progression-free survival is the end point most commonly used to assess the effectiveness of experimental regimens, and biomarker-based patient selection is rarely used in ongoing clinical trials for NSCLC.