Healthcare Providers FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions For Healthcare Providers
Is there an example of a completed care plan I can view?
Yes, click here to view an example of a completed care plan for a breast cancer survivor. Or click here to view an SCP for a head & neck cancer survivor.
Presenting the OncoLife™ Care Plan to your colleagues
Use this presentation (
) to inform your colleagues about the care plan, data on usage and satisfaction, and how it can help your practice meet Commission on Cancer Standards as well as other guidelines.
Where does the information in the plan come from?
All the information provided in the plan comes from the medical literature, established practice guidelines or the recommendations of experts in the survivorship field.
Can I use the program to create care plans for patients in my clinic?
Absolutely! We want the care plan to be a useful resource to help oncology clinics around the world meet the needs of their cancer survivors.
I work with Spanish speaking patients, but I do not speak Spanish. I need an English plan for the patient's chart, but Spanish to hand them. Can the program help?
Yes! You can create the plan using the english program. At the end, you can use the Espanol button to toggle back and forth between English and Spanish, which will allow you to print or download the plan in both languages.
Can you list local resources in the plan?
Because the care plan is a national and international resource, we do not include local resources. We suggest that each clinic create a handout of favorite local resources to be distributed along with the care plan.
What is the best way to distribute the plan?
Your patient's plan can be printed out, either to hand them a hard copy, or to keep a copy in their chart. However, it is best viewed online, as this is the only way to maintain the web links within the care plan. We encourage healthcare providers to either save the plan as a PDF and then email it, or email it directly from the care plan program- both methods will allow the patient to utilize the links within the plan.
If I distribute printed copies of the plan to my patients, can I give them a list of the resources included in the online plan?
Yes, we have compiled a list of the resources found in the care plan here.
Can I save a plan I am working on?
Unfortunately, you cannot. We do not want to store a patient's treatment information, therefore we decided not to allow the saving of plans in progress. The good news is that the plan takes health care providers an average 4-5 minutes to complete.
Do I need to register?
No, the program is free to use, and requires no registration.
What do you do with the user's answers to the questionnaire?
We collect the answers to conduct ongoing research, and to guide periodic improvements to the program. All answers are kept confidential and are used in de-identified aggregate data form.
Why don't you ask for chemotherapy or radiation doses?
This program was originally created with the survivor as the primary user, though this has changed over time. We felt that patients would not necessarily know the dose of chemotherapy or radiation that they received. We also found that, in most cases, the dose would not change recommendations for survivorship care. Furthermore, we were concerned that asking for specific doses may deter users, so we opted not to ask about doses.
Why can't I include a patient's dose in the plan?
It is important to distinguish the OncoLife™ Survivorship Care Plan from a treatment summary. The treatment summary is used to provide the patient and other healthcare providers with information such as surgery details, pathology results, chemotherapy and radiation treatment plans and courses, including the doses. The OncoLife™ Survivorship Care Plan is not a treatment summary. Feel free to use our
to create this document for your patient.
What is the "Healthcare Provider Summary"?
The healthcare provider summary is a short summary and a bullet point list of the recommendations in the patient's care plan, which the patient can share with their primary care team or other healthcare provider involved in their care.
How can I test the program for myself or demonstrate for others in my clinic?
Because we use the data from patient care plans for research and to guide changes and enhancements, we ask that if you are creating a test or sample plan, use this link to create the plan. This will allow us to exclude those answers from analysis.
Does my patient need to be present when I fill out the questionnaire?
We have heard this done both ways- some HCPs prefer to create plans the day before clinic, without the patient present, while some choose do it with the patient present. There are 2 "pathways" for the program, patient and HCP. At the beginning of the program, you are prompted to choose a pathway:
- If you answer "patient version", you will enter the patient pathway, which will ask you questions about what side effects the patient is experiencing. No side effects will be eliminated based on these responses. We collect these answers to do patient reported outcomes research.
- If you choose to enter the HCP pathway, you will not be asked questions about potential side effects and will be able to remove side effects you believe are not relevant for this patient and add a note specific to your practice.
Do you have a list of survivorship clinics
We do, please visit the Survivorship Clinic List. Consider submitting your clinic to the listing as well.
