Abstract
Objective: This paper examines how and why to improve care systems for disease management and health promotion for the growing population of cancer survivors with cardiovascular multi-morbidities. Method: We reviewed research characterizing cancer survivors' and their multiple providers' common sense cognitive models of survivors' main health threats, preventable causes of adverse health events, and optimal coping strategies. Results: Findings indicate that no entity in the health care system selfidentifies as claiming primary responsibility to address longstanding unhealthy lifestyle behaviors that heighten survivors' susceptibility to both cancer and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and whose improvement could enhance quality of life. Conclusions: To address this gap, we propose systems-level changes that integrate health promotion into existing survivorship services by including behavioral risk factor vital signs in the electronic medical record, with default proactive referral to a health promotionist (a paraprofessional coach adept with mobile technologies and supervised by a professional expert in health behavior change). By using the patient's digital tracking data to coach remotely and periodically report progress to providers, the health promotionist closes a gap, creating a connected care system that supports, reinforces, and maintains accountability for healthy lifestyle improvement. No comparable resource solely dedicated to treatment of chronic disease risk behaviors (smoking, obesity, physical inactivity, treatment nonadherence) exists in current models of integrated care. Integrating health promotionists into care delivery channels would remove burden from overtaxed PCPs and instantiate a comprehensive, actionable systems-level schema of health risks and coping strategies needed to have preventive impact with minimal interference to clinical work flow.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 840-850 |
Number of pages | 11 |
Journal | Health Psychology |
Volume | 38 |
Issue number | 9 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Sep 2019 |
Funding
Preparation of this article was supported in part by NIH P30CA60553 for the Robert Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, by T32 CA193193 (PIs Bonnie Spring and Frank Penedo, providing salary support for Tammy Stump) and by a Northwestern University I3 support grant to Bonnie Spring, June K. Robinson, and Frank Penedo. The authors report no financial disclosures or conflicts of interest. They express thanks to Katrina Champion, Siobhan Phillips, Laura Finch, and Annie Lin for helpful feedback about the manuscript.
Keywords
- Cancer survivors
- Electronic health records
- Health behavior
- Health promotion
- Risk factors
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Psychiatry and Mental health
- Applied Psychology