Implementation and Patient-Reported Outcomes of an Insurance-Supported Integrative Oncology Symptom Management...

Area of Science:

• Integrative Oncology
• Symptom Management
• Health Services Research

Background:

• Integrative oncology (IO) is recommended for symptom management, but sustainable, guideline-supported models are lacking.
• Existing models often fail to integrate insurance coverage with diverse therapeutic modalities.
• There's a need for accessible and effective IO services that address patient-reported outcomes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the implementation of a hybrid insurance-supported, guideline-informed IO symptom management clinic.
• To evaluate the impact of single treatments on patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs).
• To assess patient and clinician acceptability of the implemented IO clinic model.

Main Methods:

• Established a hybrid IO clinic offering insurance-covered physician consults and massage, with low-cost group acupuncture, reiki, and medical visits.
• Collected utilization, demographic, and PROM data (PROMIS-29, ESAS) from electronic health records.
• Administered an acceptability survey to a subset of patients (n=62) and analyzed treatment effects on patients with moderate-to-severe symptoms.

Main Results:

• 1924 IO treatments were provided to 291 patients over 15 months.
• Clinically meaningful improvements were observed across all modalities for pain, stress, anxiety, depression, nausea, and fatigue.
• High acceptability was reported, with 62.3% strongly agreeing the clinic facilitated integrative therapy use and 85.5% willing to refer others.

Conclusions:

• The hybrid insurance-based IO clinic model is adaptable, guideline-concordant, and effective for symptom management.
• The model demonstrates high patient satisfaction and increasing utilization.
• Further research into similar insurance-supported models can enhance accessibility and patient satisfaction in integrative oncology care.