Kerri Fitzgerald

DocwireNews

A randomized, controlled trial presented at the&nbsp;Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium&nbsp;found that&nbsp;oncologists&nbsp;may&nbsp;spend less time&mdash;up to 5 minutes&mdash;discussing goals of cancer care&nbsp;with&nbsp;minority patients compared with non-minority patients.&nbsp;Researchers recruited&nbsp;22&nbsp;solid tumor oncologists&nbsp;from&nbsp;community, academic, municipal, and rural hospitals&nbsp;and their newly diagnosed advanced cancer patients with&nbsp;a prognosis of less than 2 years.&nbsp;Oncologists&nbsp;were randomized to either the intervention group, which included grand rounds, a 2-hour workshop with a simulated patient, and&nbsp;4 coaching visits;&nbsp;or usual care, which also included 1 hour of grand rounds.&nbsp;&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/AngeloVolandes/status/1066423419707756546">https://twitter.com/AngeloVolandes/status/1066423419707756546</a>Post-imaging visits&nbsp;(n=142)&nbsp;were audiotaped,&nbsp;and&nbsp;researchers evaluated the&nbsp;median encounter time.&nbsp;Patients also filled out post-visit surveys, which asked about goals of care discussions, which was defined as the physician talking&nbsp;about preferences for cancer treatment and clarifying&nbsp;things most important to them given their illness.&nbsp;&nbsp;Patients were&nbsp;non-Hispanic White&nbsp;(38%),&nbsp;non-Hispanic Black&nbsp;(32%), and&nbsp;Hispanic&nbsp;(19%). The median face-to-face time oncologists spent during a&nbsp;goals of care&nbsp;encounters&nbsp;was 12 minutes&nbsp;with minority patients&nbsp;compared&nbsp;with&nbsp;17 minutes&nbsp;with non-minority patients&nbsp;(P=0.002). Median encounter times varied between the sites, ranging from 10&nbsp;to 18 minutes (P=0.009).&nbsp;Visits&nbsp;taking&nbsp;place after&nbsp;disease&nbsp;progression&nbsp;had a&nbsp;duration&nbsp;of&nbsp;18 minutes&nbsp;compared with&nbsp;13 minutes&nbsp;when disease had not progressed (P=0.007). After controlling for clustering of the patients within the hospitals and progression of disease, time spent with minority patients remained less than with non-minority patients (15 minutes&nbsp;vs&nbsp;18 minutes;&nbsp;P=0.02).&nbsp;<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
When discussing goals of care with patients with advanced cancer, oncologists tend to spend less time in conversations with minority patients compared with nonminority patients, Disparities Seen in 'Goals of Care' Talks in Advanced Cancer <a href="https://t.co/nAjiG0UUEc">https://t.co/nAjiG0UUEc</a> via <a href="https://twitter.com/Medscape?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@medscape</a>
&mdash; ACP Decisions (@acpdecisions) <a href="https://twitter.com/acpdecisions/status/1066423477148766209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 24, 2018</a>
</blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>&ldquo;Evaluating factors that contribute to this disparity is critically important to ensure minority patients receive high-quality cancer care,&rdquo; the researchers concluded.&nbsp;<a href="https://proddocwire.wpengine.com/docwire-pick/discussing-financial-burden/">Patients and physicians report conflicting attitudes surrounding discussions of cancer&rsquo;s financial burden.</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://proddocwire.wpengine.com/hematology-oncology/study-finds-early-palliative-cancer-care-reduces-costs/">Study finds early palliative cancer care reduces costs.</a>&nbsp;Source:&nbsp;<a href="https://meetinglibrary.asco.org/record/167038/abstract">Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium</a>

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Study Finds Oncologists Spend Less Time Talking About Care Goals With Minority Patients

Oncology

A randomized, controlled trial presented at the Palliative and Supportive Care in Oncology Symposium found that oncologists may spend less time—up to 5 ...

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