Poster Presentation Clinical Oncology Society of Australia Annual Scientific Meeting 2019

Feasibility of the electronic Rapid Fitness Assessment (eRFA) in an Australian Regional Cancer Centre (#377)

Ayman A Alidina 1 , Christopher C Steer 2 , Nicole N Webb 3 , Maria Shamim 3 , Donna D Long 1 , Richard Eek 1 , Kerrie Clarke 1 , Craig Underhill 1 , Armin Shahrokni 4
  1. Border Medical Oncology, East Albury, NSW, Australia
  2. University of New South Wales, Rural Clinical School, Albury , NSW, Australia
  3. Albury Wodonga Health, Albury, NSW, Australia
  4. Dept of Geriatrics, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York , USA

Introduction

International guidelines recommend that some form of geriatric assessment (GA) should be part of the management of older adults with cancer.(1) The electronic Rapid Fitness Assessment (eRFA) is a tool developed by Webcore at MSKCC(2) which measures multiple GA domains and is used to determine need for formal GA.

Objective 

The aim was to assess the eRFA in adults aged >70 years with a new cancer diagnosis at an Australian regional cancer centre. 

Methods:

Participants completed the eRFA via Ipad around the time of their initial oncology assessment. A Timed Up and Go and MiniCOG was performed by a clinician. Data was de-identified and stored on the Webcore server. A patient satisfaction survey was completed. 

Results: 

The eRFA was administered to 50 of 223 patients (22.4%) aged >70 years (median age 79.1 years) seen at Border Medical Oncology from March to December 2018.
It was completed by the participant in 34(68%) cases while 16(32%) required assistance. The average time for completion of the eRFA was 15 minutes. 35/50 (70%) participants reported they would use the tablet over the hard-copy and 40/50 (80%) felt comfortable using the Ipad. 42/50 (84%) of participants had >3 impairments in domains of geriatric assessment with an average of 5.4 impairments, including 13/50 (26%) who scored <4 on the miniCOG. 
However, all patients completed the eRFA in a separate office and not at the time of the initial consult as planned. 

These results demonstrate that the majority of patients are satisfied with the eRFA although a significant proportion of participants required assistance, and performing the eRFA prior to initial appointment was not practical. This study will inform implementation research to enable the eRFA to play a role in the care of older adults at the centre.

  1. NCCN: Older Adult Oncology, NCCN Clinical Pracitce Guidelines in Oncology (ed Version 2.2017), 2017
  2. Shahrokni A, Tin A, Downey RJ, Strong V, Mahmoudzadeh S, Boparai MK, McMillan S, Vickers A, Korc-Grodzicki B: Electronic Rapid Fitness Assessment: A Novel Tool for Preoperative Evaluation of the Geriatric Oncology Patient. J Natl Compr Canc Netw 15:172-179, 2017