WCLC 2025 - Posters & ePosters-EP.17.13 Healthcare Professionals’ Perceived Barriers and Facilitators of Risk-Stratified Follow-Up Care in Lung Cancer

Pdf Summary

This qualitative study explores healthcare professionals’ perceived barriers and facilitators to implementing risk-stratified follow-up care in lung cancer. With rising lung cancer survivors, tailoring follow-up intensity based on individual recurrence risk aims to reduce unnecessary imaging and maintain high-quality care. The study involved 14 semi-structured interviews with a multidisciplinary group including pulmonologists, nurse specialists, and radiation oncologists. Analysis used the Grol & Wensing framework across innovation, patient, professional/social, organizational, and economic/political levels.<br /><br />Key facilitators for adoption included evidence demonstrating the safety, clinical effectiveness, and cost-efficiency of risk-stratified strategies. Professionals valued personalized follow-up approaches, tailored communication to overcome patient health literacy challenges, potential workload reduction without loss of clinical autonomy, and facilitating interprofessional collaboration embedded within care pathways. Policy support and resource optimization were also viewed positively.<br /><br />Barriers identified were financial constraints and inadequate reimbursement models; patients’ diverse follow-up preferences and health literacy variability; providers’ concerns over reduced autonomy and unclear roles; staffing shortages and limited imaging capacity; poor integration of stratified care into existing clinical workflows; and lack of robust evidence supporting the innovation's safety, effectiveness, and efficiency.<br /><br />The findings suggest that effective implementation requires a comprehensive, evidence-based approach addressing these multi-level challenges. Incorporating patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and quality of life data in risk stratification may enhance acceptability. Future research should focus on validating the safety and economic impact of risk-stratified follow-up and aligning policies and reimbursement to enable sustainable practice changes. This study provides a roadmap to designing feasible, acceptable lung cancer follow-up models that balance personalized care with healthcare resource optimization.

Asset Subtitle

Nadia Moss

Meta Tag

Speaker Nadia Moss

Topic Global Health, Health Services, and Health Economics

Keywords

lung cancer

risk-stratified follow-up

healthcare professionals

qualitative study

barriers and facilitators

personalized care

health literacy

interprofessional collaboration

implementation challenges

patient-reported outcome measures