Original scientific paper
A Model of Oncologic Care in General Medicine
Andro Vlahušić
Slobodan Lang
Dubravka Županić-Krmek
Abstract
The problems related to cancer and its control initially manifest in local community,
and general practitioners are those who most commonly have to face them there. The
aim of the study was to develop a program of comprehensive oncologic care for primary
care physicians, which would be highly professional, efficient, economically justified
and feasible, with the ultimate goal of upgrading the target population health and quality
of life. Opinions on the priorities and intensity of work in particular activities of general
practitioners in the field of oncologic care were obtained from 54 Croatian experts
in oncologic care. An Expert Opinion was designed to collect oncologists' opinions by use
of Delphi method. The study was performed in two runs, yielding a high rate of accordance
among the oncologists. 38 of 54 participants responded in the first run, and 40 of
54 (74%) responded in the second run. The results indicated pain therapy and terminal
care to be given highest priority, whereas measures of primary prevention ranked first
as a group. There was a unanimous agreement that current activities of primary care
physicians in the field of oncologic care were not satisfactory, and that they should take
the role of a coordinator of the oncologic care of both individual patients and the population
at large. The study showed that a model of oncologic care applicable throughout the
country could be developed by combining data from a small health care office with the
knowledge of renowned experts in the field.
Keywords
cancer control; general practitioner; expert opinion; prevention; early detection; pain therapy
Hrčak ID:
28202
URI
Publication date:
15.12.2003.
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