Abstract
Purpose: Recent developments in oral chemotherapy and targeted therapies have radically changed the way in which cancer patients are managed. Ambulatory care is now common, associated with the development of organizations that foster, secure home treatments, and reinforce the city hospital link.
Methods: THERANOVA-LIM (NCT04931329), a prospective, interventional study, assessed the satisfaction of healthcare professionals and patients who benefited from improved access to information on appropriate drug use imparted by a drug vigilance card or a prescription with a QR code.
Results: Initially, an e-questionnaire was used to explore the practices and expectations of retail pharmacists; only 40% stated that they felt comfortable when managing patients on oral therapy. A total of 128 patients were included in the study, 55 in a “medication vigilance card” group and 73 in a “prescription with QR code” group. Patients were satisfied with the new systems and with the simplicity afforded by both the card and the prescription (p = 0.8). Similarly, 93.2% of professionals were satisfied with the new system. However, they felt that the prescription with a QR code was of greater assistance than the drug vigilance card (p = 0.02). There was no significant between-group difference in compliance (p = 0.3595)
Conclusion: The two systems improved the management of patients on oral chemotherapy; the QR-coded prescription was optimal. The fact that both patients and healthcare professionals were satisfied encourages us to extend the innovations and evaluate them further.
Trial Registration Number and the date of registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04931329. 2021-05-10