Oncordance
Integrating palliative care into surgical care for people with advanced cancer at NCCS. With surgeons and their teams delivering general palliative, more cancer patients can benefit and symptoms and palliative care needs can be identified and addressed earlier.
Why surgery and palliative care? Surgeons are well-placed to deliver palliative care:
- 80% of advanced cancer patients require surgery
- Surgeons witness the suffering: By the time advanced cancer patients require surgery, many are in a lot of pain. Patients and families are highly anxious.
- Surgeons meet patients relatively early, as patients often remove tumours before moving onto chemotherapy. This is the chance to detect and address symptoms and palliative care needs.
- The gap: <5% of patients have serious illness conversations with their surgeons before surgery
Oncordance enables surgical teams at NCCS-SGH to deliver general palliative care
- Surgeons, surgical nurses and care coaches undergo a palliative care course tailored for them. 200 will be trained over 2 years at the Lien Centre for Palliative Care.
- Serious Illness Conversations (SIC) is important so patients can articulate what matters to them, to ensure the surgery and subsequent treatment are goal-concordant.
- Surgeons are supported by the care coach who will continue SICs and screen every patient regularly for palliative care needs.
- Those with high distress can be referred early to specialist palliative care, who provide ongoing guidance for the surgical team throughout
Oncordance includes developing a cancer rehab ecosystem, to support these patients from the hospital into the community. More will be shared at a later date.
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