Over the past two decades cancer survivorship has received greater attention among consumers, professional and accrediting bodies, health care services and policy makers. The structured delivery of information that includes a summary of the treatment received (treatment summary) and a plan for follow-up care (care plan) has been recommended to support care coordination and facilitate transition from regular contact with the treatment team to follow-up care that can be delivered by other health professionals within and external to the treatment setting.
Treatment summaries and care plans are related but separate documents although they are often implemented together as a combined approach to survivorship care. Various templates have been developed by different organisations worldwide with several common features. The treatment summary typically includes clinical and treatment-related information such as diagnoses, treatment history, key dates and complications. The care plan is often developed with the patient and contains specific information on topics such as management of persistent treatment effects, supportive care and lifestyle interventions. The purpose of a treatment summary is to ensure that survivors have an accurate record of their treatment and the purpose of a care plan is to support specific actions to promote wellness; both may be shared with other health professionals.
At present, in Australia there are guidelines but no specific mandates requiring health services to provide treatment summaries and care plans, and hence their use in practice is patchy. This presentation will summarise: the history underpinning the focus on survivorship treatment summaries and care plans; intended benefits to patient care and recovery (and also to the treating team); evidence on effectiveness, use and implementation of treatment summaries/ care plans; current Australian recommendations and guidelines; and resources and tools available to assist clinicians who would like to offer care plans and treatment summaries.