Edinburgh Cancer Informatics team members Dr Iain Phillips (right) and (below) analyst Caleb McDougall-Monk, Prof. Peter Hall and Dr Mark Stares have cause to celebrate recently, having succesfully published their work on prehabilitation in lung cancer patients.
The paper, entitled “Multidisciplinary Prehabilitation Reduces Hospitalization Time and Suggests Improved Survival in Patients with Radiologically Diagnosed Lung Cancer”, set out to investigate the effects of an early intervention model.
The EPIC project (early prehabilitation in lung cancer) was designed to integrate early palliative/supportive care, dietetic support, and rehabilitation from a physiotherapist, as soon as possible into a patients cancer pathway. The initial phase of this pilot project showed a 76% reduction in hospital time. The positive outcomes from this second phase supported those earlier findings, demonstrating sustained reductions in hospital time and a decrease in the average length of stay per admission from 7.6 days to 3 days. These findings, along with additional benefits, underscore the value of this early intervention model.
To read the article, click here.
The EPIC project demonstrates that small changes in the care pathway—when implemented early—can lead to major improvements in survival and hospital outcomes. It’s particularly interesting that the benefits were sustained in the second phase of the study. Were there any challenges in implementing this multidisciplinary approach across departments?