News Wise: One Simple Change Cut Unnecessary Imaging for Cancer Patients in Half

Simply introducing a default physician order — a “nudge” — into electronic health records (EHRs) cut the use of unnecessary daily imaging in half during palliative radiation therapy sessions for patients with advanced cancer, according to a Penn Medicine study published today in JAMA Oncology. While daily imaging is typically used in curative cancer treatment, national guidelines recommend providers transition to weekly imaging for palliative radiotherapy sessions. Daily imaging unnecessarily extends the duration of each radiation therapy session for palliative care patients who are often in pain or discomfort from the progression of cancer. “Cutting down on lower value health care is a hard nut to crack. Successfully doing so through the electronic health record in a scalable way opens a whole new set of tools we can bring to bear on the problem,” said the study’s co-senior author Justin E. Bekelman, MD, director of the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation at the Abramson Cancer Center and associate professor of Radiation Oncology and Medical Ethics & Health Policy. “By eliminating friction involved with ordering guideline-based cancer care, we showed that clinicians quickly adopt it.” The study’s other co-senior author, Mitesh Patel, MD, MBA, director of the Penn Medicine Nudge Unit and assistant professor of Medicine and Health Care Management, pointed out that this study’s application of the technique is unique. Read more at News Wise, Healio, 7th Space