Antonio Lázaro Sánchez, Consultant Medical Oncologist at Hospital Clínico Universitario Virgen de la Arrixaca, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“We have just published a review in Clinical and Translational Oncology on a topic that is rarely discussed in oncology: how the regional organisation of services affects patients’ actual access to care.
Certain procedures must be concentrated in specialist centres: complex surgery, advanced radiotherapy, cell therapies and early-phase clinical trials.
But a large part of oncology involves routine care: systemic treatment, check-ups and follow-up. When all of this also requires travelling to the referral hospital, each visit adds to the delay and burden on the patient – what we call ‘time toxicity’.
We propose a ‘hub-and-spoke’ network framework: complex care at the centre, routine care closer to home, underpinned by shared governance and digital interoperability.”
Title: Geographic access as a modifiable determinant of cancer care: perspectives on hub-and-spoke oncology networks, travel burden and time toxicity
Authors: Javier-David Benitez-Fuentes, Alicia de Luna Aguilar, Esele Okondo, Olusola Adeleke, Asia Ferrandez Arias, Alvaro Rodriguez-Lescure and Antonio David Lazaro Sanchez
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