Conectar
Limited literature has focused on people with cancers' preference for care providers in scenarios where trade-offs may have to be made.
To report the results of a comprehensive search and synthesis of discrete choice experiments or best-worst scaling studies (± willingness to pay estimates) in scenarios involving cancer nurses, with a focus on: (1) preferred care provider; and (2) relative importance of attributes of care provision for people with cancer.
A search was conducted across: CINAHL, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, EconLit, Medline, PsycINFO, Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection, and Google Scholar for discrete choice experiments published between January and July 2025. Data were extracted and appraised by two authors. Results were narratively synthesised.
Of 461 studies screened, 11 were included, published in Australia (n = 3), UK (n = 3), and China (n = 5) including people with breast (n = 4), gastric (n = 4), prostate (n = 1), or mixed cancers (n = 2). In six studies exploring scenarios of follow-up care (i.e., survivorship/surveillance), cancer medical specialists were the preferred care provider, followed by cancer nurses, and then general practitioners. In four of the five studies of supportive care scenarios (i.e., diet and exercise advice, anxiety and depression screening), cancer nurses were the preferred care provider, followed by allied health professionals, then cancer medical specialists. The highest WTP estimate was $US226.15 for a medical specialist to provide follow-up care. For supportive care, the highest WTP was $US137.52 for a cancer nurse to provide diet-based lifestyle advice post-treatment for breast cancer.
Cancer nurses are highly valued by people with cancer, particularly for supportive care provision. Opportunities exist for an increase in cancer nurse specialists with expanded scope of practice, to support the preference of people with cancer to have cancer medical specialists, or cancer nurse specialists provide expert cancer follow-up care.
Employees of a cancer patient advocacy group were involved in the design of the study, interpretation of the data, and the preparation of the manuscript. No patients were involved in this work. However, this systematic review prioritized patient voices by including studies that reported on the preferences of people with cancer.
Home-based physiotherapy is a current approach to manage knee osteoarthritis (OA). However, adherence to physiotherapy is poor. Non-immersive virtual reality (VR) has shown promise in improving self-efficacy and adherence in other clinical conditions. A non-immersive VR-based home physiotherapy system named Sensor-based Physiotherapy Intervention with Virtual Reality (SPIN-VR) for knee OA has been developed, integrating physiotherapy exercises into engaging games that adjust in difficulty based on real-time performance. This approach aims to enhance exercise adherence by making physiotherapy more enjoyable and personalised. To evaluate the feasibility of this intervention, a randomised controlled trial is being conducted.
This single-centre, open-label, randomised controlled feasibility trial will evaluate the SPIN-VR system over 12 weeks compared with usual care physiotherapy for knee OA. 50 participants will be randomly assigned to either the SPIN-VR or usual care group, with follow-ups at 12 and 24 weeks post randomisation. The primary outcomes will be a description of feasibility of recruitment, patient willingness to be randomised, the completeness of outcome measures and patient adherence to the intervention. Secondary outcomes include evaluations of muscle strength, endurance, aerobic capacity, exercise technique, central pain processing and self-reported pain mechanisms and moderators. Participants in the intervention arm will be interviewed after 12 weeks to capture their experience in using the VR system.
This protocol was approved by the Wales Research Ethics Committee 3. Research findings will be disseminated in open-access peer-reviewed journals, to researchers and health professionals through conference presentations, to patients and the public by organising webinars and a seminar.
FreshRSS 