Enhancing Healthcare for Sarcoma Patients: Lessons from a Diagnostic Pathway Efficiency Analysis

Sarcomas, rare and with lower survival rates than common tumors, offer insights into healthcare efficiency via the analysis of the total interval of the diagnostic pathway, combining the patient interval (time between the first symptom and visit with a physician) and diagnostic interval (time betwee...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Cancers 2023-10, Vol.15 (19), p.4892
Main Authors: Elyes, Maria, Heesen, Philip, Schelling, Georg, Bode-Lesniewska, Beata, Studer, Gabriela, Fuchs, Bruno
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age
Analysis
Bone cancer
Bone tumors
Diagnosis
Emergency medical care
Family physicians
Health care
Health care policy
Hospitals
Localization
Medical care, Cost of
Medical records
Medical referrals
Patient satisfaction
Patients
Physicians
Primary care
Sarcoma
Stem cells
Tumors
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Summary:Sarcomas, rare and with lower survival rates than common tumors, offer insights into healthcare efficiency via the analysis of the total interval of the diagnostic pathway, combining the patient interval (time between the first symptom and visit with a physician) and diagnostic interval (time between first physician visit and histological diagnosis). Switzerland’s healthcare system, Europe’s costliest, lacks research on treating rare conditions, like mesenchymal tumors. This study examines the total interval of the diagnostic pathway for optimization strategies. Analyzing a dataset of 1028 patients presented from 2018 to 2021 to the Swiss Sarcoma Board (MDT/SB-SSN), this retrospective analysis delves into bone sarcoma (BS), soft-tissue sarcoma (STS), and their benign counterparts. Demographic and treatment data were extracted from medical records. The patient interval accounted for the largest proportion of the total interval and secondary care interval for the largest proportion of the diagnostic interval. Age, grade, and localization could be elicited as influencing factors of the length of different components of the total interval. An increasing age and tumor size, as well as the axial localization, could be elicited as factors increasing the probability of sarcoma. The patient and secondary care interval (SCI) offer the greatest potential for optimization, with SCI being the bottleneck of the diagnostic interval. New organizational structures for care work-ups are needed, such as integrated practice units (IPU) as integral part of value-based healthcare (VBHC).
ISSN:2072-6694
2072-6694
DOI:10.3390/cancers15194892