Shaowei Wan: Improving Care Coordination Between Palliative and Oncology Care for Rural Older Adults
Shaowei Wan, Research Associate at Palo Alto VA Hospital, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“New Publication Alert!
Thrilled to share that our paper, “Healthcare Professionals’ Perspectives on Improving Care Coordination between Palliative and Oncology Care for Rural Older Adults,” is now published in the Journal of Geriatric Oncology.
Rural older adults with cancer often face significant challenges accessing palliative care—and even when services exist, coordination between oncology and palliative teams can be fragmented.
We interviewed oncology and palliative care clinicians across Colorado, we uncovered:
- Tensions between oncology and palliative practice styles that delay timely referrals.
- Limited system capacity as a major barrier to integrating palliative care early.
- Structured communication pathways and care coordinators as powerful facilitators of smoother transitions.
- Rural cultural values of stoicism and caring for one another that both hinder and help care engagement.
- Telehealth has “come a long way”, though connectivity and technology barriers persist.
Key takeaway: Improving care coordination for rural older adults requires multi-level solutions—from continuing education on palliative care, grassroots support for rural patient/caregiver, to leveraging telehealth and academic-community partnership.
I hope this work sparks further dialogue and innovation to ensure that where someone lives doesn’t determine the quality of their cancer and palliative care.”
Title: Healthcare professionals’ perspectives on improving care coordination between palliative and cancer care for rural older adults: A qualitative study
Authors: Shaowei Wan, Jean M. Youngwerth, Regina M. Fink, Karl A. Lorenz, Sarah E. Brewer, Jean S. Kutner, Jennifer Dickman Portz, Stacy M. Fischer
Read the Full Article.
More posts featuring Journal of Geriatric Oncology on OncoDaily.
-
Challenging the Status Quo in Colorectal Cancer 2024
December 6-8, 2024
-
ESMO 2024 Congress
September 13-17, 2024
-
ASCO Annual Meeting
May 30 - June 4, 2024
-
Yvonne Award 2024
May 31, 2024
-
OncoThon 2024, Online
Feb. 15, 2024
-
Global Summit on War & Cancer 2023, Online
Dec. 14-16, 2023