ideasIdea
Formal caregiver assessment and training written into every treatment plan
The person looking after a cancer patient at home is assessed, trained (medicines, symptoms, when to call) and supported as part of the plan, not left to work it out.
Informal caregivers deliver most cancer care and report high distress, financial loss and health deterioration; caregiver competence predicts patient admissions. The proposal is a caregiver assessment at treatment start (capacity, health, needs), a short skills programme for home management, and a named contact, recorded in the patient's plan with caregiver-reported outcomes tracked.
Hypothesis
Caregiver assessment and training reduce patient emergency admissions and caregiver depression scores and increase completion of oral therapies managed at home.
Rationale
Oral and outpatient therapy has moved care into the home without moving the training; dementia and stroke care have shown caregiver programmes are effective.
What would test it
Randomised trial of caregiver programme versus usual care for patients starting oral or outpatient regimens; endpoints admissions, adherence, caregiver burden.
Maturity
early clinical
Who has to act
clinic
Cost to try
Small (under $1M)
Years to first evidence
2
Bottlenecks it attacks
- Patients lack understanding, navigation and agency · Most patients cannot understand their options, find trials, or push back, so decisions are made for them.
- Survivorship and late effects are neglected · Tens of millions of people live after cancer with heart damage, infertility, second cancers and fear, and few services.