Patient Education

Promoting Patient Value Through Education

Providing timely and appropriate education is the key to establishing informed shared patient decision making.  There exists great variability in how radiation treatment centres across Canada approach the development of patient education programs. CPQR will conduct an environmental scan to determine the types of education materials available to patients and their families and provision of such to patients and their families. By setting guidelines to support improved radiation treatment program understanding, it will strengthen adherence to Accreditation Canada’s Cancer Care Standards for patient education.

What is CPQR’s approach?

To develop patient education guidelines for Canadian radiation treatment programs we intend to:

• Establish a patient education working group that includes patients, patient education and engagement experts, radiation oncologists, therapists and medical physicists
• Conduct an environmental scan of presently existing patient initiatives on a local, provincial and national level and focus on delivery and materials associated with patient education

What are the long-term objectives?

This work will establish early guidelines to support improved understanding of what information and education is required for patients undergoing radiation treatment.  This will lay the groundwork for more robust guideline validation and endorsement by both health care providers, patients and their families.

What is CPQR doing?

CPQR is piloting a pan-Canadian PRO-gram in PRO collection for patients undergoing curative radiation treatment for head and neck cancer or palliative radiation treatment for bone metastases.  For more information on this work please visit our PRO page.