Research Opportunity: Systemic Therapy Workload Planning

Synopsis: Be part of a research team by sharing the patient perspective, helping explain the patient journey and research findings, and identifying any challenges with proposed solutions. You would also be listed as a co-author on any reports, publications, or other outputs from the project.

Due date: Sept 4 to meet internal deadline

Commitment if funded: 2 hours per quarter for 4 years (although, if not able to commit to the full 4 years, that is fine)

Compensation: $50/hr

Please reach out to Dr. Melanie Powis directly at Melanie.Powis@uhn.ca to express interest and to start the process of becoming a patient partner for the grant/project.

Full description:

INTER-PROFESSIONAL CANCER SYSTEMIC THERAPY WORKLOAD PLANNING

Cancer care systems are under growing pressure. Many healthcare workers are experiencing burnout and leaving their jobs, staff responsibilities are not always clearly defined, and care is often poorly coordinated. These problems can make it harder to provide timely, high-quality cancer care. The demand for cancer services is also increasing because more people are developing cancer, the population is getting older, and improvements in diagnosis and treatment are helping people live longer while continuing treatment for longer periods. As a result, cancer systems are struggling to keep up with the number and complexity of patients needing care.

Researchers have done considerable work to estimate how many healthcare professionals are needed to provide radiation treatment in the future. However, less work has focused on systemic therapy, such as chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and other drug treatments that affect the whole body. Providing these treatments requires substantial support from pharmacists and nurses, but existing workforce planning models mainly measure the workload of medical oncologists and focus on newly diagnosed patients. This approach does not fully reflect how systemic therapy is delivered today. Patients are staying on treatment longer than they did in the past, and newer treatments are often more complicated to give and monitor. This means that the actual workload for healthcare teams is likely greater than current models suggest.

To address this gap, we used data from people across Ontario to examine trends in the healthcare workforce needed to deliver systemic therapy for seven types of cancer. We also studied the patient, healthcare provider, and organizational factors that affect this workload.

Building on these findings, we will:

1. Complete a planning model to estimate the workload involved in delivering systemic therapy for the five most common cancers, using information from a study that measures how healthcare professionals spend their time.

2. Test whether the model works accurately in Alberta and Nova Scotia.

3. Use computer simulations to examine how different solutions could affect the healthcare system’s capacity and the number and types of healthcare professionals needed.

This project will produce a workforce planning model that reflects the increasing complexity of modern cancer treatment. The model will help healthcare planners and policy-makers make better decisions about workforce education, recruitment, staffing, and long-term cancer-care planning.

Description of patient partner opportunity and next steps:

Role: part of the research team to advise on patient journey, contextualizing findings, helping to identify drawbacks to potential mitigation strategies from the patient perspective; would be a co-author on any outputs resulting from the work

Due date: Sept 4 to meet internal deadline

Commitment if funded: 2 hours per quarter for 4 years (although, if not able to commit to the full 4 years, that is fine)

Compensation: $50/hr

Please reach out to Dr. Melanie Powis directly at Melanie.Powis@uhn.ca to express interest and to start the process of becoming a patient partner for the grant/project.