Research Round-up – September 2019 – Michael Jefford
Dr Milley talks to Professor Michael Jefford – a Consultant Medical Oncologist and Director of the Australian Cancer Survivorship Centre, at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Professor Jefford recently co-authored “Tools to facilitate communication during physician‐patient consultations in cancer care: An overview of systematic reviews”. The Systematic Review considered effective methods of communication between physicians and their patients regarding improving care for people living with cancer. Professor Jefford believes effective communication between cancer survivors and their clinicians’ means that they can better understand their situation and participate in decision-making. Successful communication is linked with reduced stress, improved pain control, an understanding of and observance to treatment, prompter recovery, and better quality of life. People want to feel like they’re listened to. Professor Jefford mentions that the quality of the systematic views reviewed varied and was not consistent which had implications for the conclusions that can be reached. He talks about tools that are used in consultation and mentions that the use of Patient-Reported Outcomes and a question prompt list. He believes more work needs to be done regarding the consistency of systematic reviews and the processes around implementation of the tools.
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