Grant: Team Grant: Community-Based Primary Healthcare - LOI

This research program will design and test new ways of providing post-treatment follow-up care for cancer survivors in settings like family practice offices in the community. This care will be provided by teams that include family doctors, nurses and other health professionals and community services. Currently, most cancer survivors receive some post-treatment follow-up care in cancer centres. This research is important because the current way care is provided is inconsistent and not well organized. As a result, cancer survivors may not receive the care they need to recover from cancer treatment and for their future health. In this research community-based teams will collaborate with cancer centres in new ways to improve care for cancer survivors. These new ways of providing care will be compared with current approaches in Alberta, Ontario and Nova Scotia. Individuals who have completed treatment for breast, colorectal, and prostate cancer will participate in the research. Study results will provide information about how to: support cancer survivors to be more involved in their care, support healthcare providers in giving the best possible care, and coordinate care among various providers and health services. We anticipate that new ways of providing post-treatment follow-up care in the community will reduce the symptoms cancer survivors experience and improve their quality of life. These new approaches may also enable cancer survivors to use community services that better meet their needs, and reduce the use of more costly but less helpful hospital services. Study results will also provide information about how to involve patients and health professionals to design and implement new ways of providing post-treatment follow-up care. Because we can compare the study results across three provinces we will be able to make suggestions on how these new approaches can be used for patients with other types of cancer in other community settings and provinces.