Bridging the care gap: patients' needs and experiences regarding shared decision-making in radiotherapy

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Patient-centered care
• Health services research

Background:

• Shared decision-making (SDM) is a collaborative approach where patients and physicians jointly decide on treatment.
• While SDM has benefits, its implementation in routine clinical practice faces challenges.
• Radiotherapy (RT) presents unique challenges for SDM due to patient referral patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate patient preferences and experiences with SDM in an academic RT clinic.
• To identify specific targets for improving SDM implementation within RT settings.

Main Methods:

• An adapted survey from the Dutch Cancer Patient Organizations Federation was used.
• The survey was distributed to former RT patients via letters and social media.
• Data were collected from patients who had their intake between 2020 and 2022.

Main Results:

• Out of 1799 participants, 88.3% preferred SDM.
• Only 23.1% of participants experienced a choice, with 50% of those having multiple options.
• Bodily autonomy was the primary reason for preferring SDM; higher education correlated with preferring and experiencing SDM.

Conclusions:

• The study confirms a high patient preference for SDM in RT, similar to general cancer care.
• A substantial disparity exists between desired and actual SDM experienced by RT patients.
• Targeted strategies are necessary to overcome RT-specific barriers and enhance SDM implementation.