Shared decision making with Oncologists and Palliative care specialists (SOP) model help advanced pancreatic cancer patients reaching goal concordant care: A prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at a late stage with a poor prognosis due to insidious symptoms and lack of evidence‐based screening in general population. Palliative care's acceptance in Asian cultures is hindered by misconceptions and ineffective communication about management that improve quality of life other than cancer directed treatment. Our study aimed to determine the effect of the Shared decision‐making with Oncologists and Palliative care specialists (SOP) model developed from the traditional shared decision‐making (SDM) model on the palliative care acceptance rate and medical resource utilization. METHODS: This is a prospective cohort study implementing the SOP model at the National Taiwan University Hospital from January 2018 to December 2019 for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Medical resource utilization was defined and recorded as the rate of hospitalization, emergency room (ER), and intensive care unit admissions. We compared the results between two groups: patients who received the SOP model in 2019 and patients who did not receive it in 2018. RESULTS: 137 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer were included in our study. The result showed that the acceptance rate of palliative care significantly increased from 50% to 78.69% after the SOP model (p = 0.01). The hospitalization rate did not show a significant difference between 2018 (93.42%, 95% CI: 0.88–0.99) and 2019 (93.44%, 95% CI: 0.87–1.00). 83.61% (95% CI: 0.74–0.93) of our patients in 2019 had at least one ER visit; the rate was 81.5% (95% CI: 0.73–0.91) in 2018 (p = 0.28). The percentage of patients admitted to the ICU increased from 3.95% in 2018 to 8.2% (95% CI: −0.05–0.08) in 2019 (95% CI: 0.11–0.15) (p = 0.00). The hospitalization and ER visit showed no statistically difference between 2 years. CONCLUSIONS: The modified SOP model markedly augmented palliative care's acceptance of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Adoption of the SOP model would provide these patients a more proactive and systematic approach to deliver needed healthcare.