IOM Report Finds Doctors Ill-Equipped for Cancer Survivors - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today
By Peggy Peck, Managing Editor, MedPage Today
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
November 09, 2005
Also covered by: CNN, NY Times, USA Today, Yahoo! News
MedPage Today Action Points
* Be aware that patients who survive cancer will require disease-specific follow-up care and should be given a long-term care-plan that includes information about how to reduce the risk of recurrence.
* Discuss with patients the various legal, financial and psychological support programs available to cancer survivors.
Review
WASHINGTON, Nov. 9 - The American health care system is poorly equipped to take care of the growing population of cancer survivors, which has tripled over the past 30 years.
So declared a report by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued this week. It was the theme of an all-day meeting at the National Academy of Sciences that brought together the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the IOM to thrash out problems surrounding cancer survivorship.
In "From Cancer Patient to Cancer Survivor: Lost in Transition, 2006," the IOM found that American doctors, particularly primary care physicians, have little training in the "benefits to patients of prevention and lifestyle change, and the complexities of integrating survivorship concerns with care for other chronic conditions."
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