[Coordination of Community-Based Integrated Care and Cancer Treatment-In Order to Live Safe Local Life Naturally]

Cancer has been the leading cause of death among Japanese people continuously since 1981. With recent advances in cancer drug therapy and the increasing number of treatment options, it is not uncommon for patients in a state of physical decline who have been transferred to home care to request continuation of treatment. Under such circumstances, it is an important issue for local major hospitals and medical institutions, such as clinics, providing community medical care to be able to cooperate and support patients together. The Japanese government has proposed the Community-based Integrated Care System as a way to support the home care provided by the health care team so that patients can live safe local life naturally in their neighborhoods as long as they could. For example, in order to smoothly build a relationship of trust between patients/families and visiting physicians, the treating physicians and visiting physicians should collaborate with each other from the later stages of chemotherapy treatment. In this collaboration, it is necessary to have someone who can pick up the needs of patients and their families, bridge the gap between the team medical members involved in community medical care (doctors, visiting nurses, visiting pharmacists, care managers, etc)and the local major hospital, and play a coordinating role. As such, it is useful to utilize specialists who are skilled in assessment, care, and coordination of cancer patients, such as professional nurses and certified nurses.