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Background: The Sarcoma Policy Checklist was created by a multidisciplinary expert group to provide policymakers with priority areas to improve care for sarcoma patients.Main Body: This paper draws on this research, by looking more closely at how France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom are addressing each of these priority areas. It aims to highlight key gaps in research, policy and practice, as well as ongoing initiatives that may impact the future care of sarcoma patients in different European countries. A pragmatic review of the published and web-based literature was undertaken. Telephone interviews were conducted in each country with clinical and patient experts to substantiate findings. Research findings were discussed within the expert group and developed into five core policy recommendations. The five identified priority areas were: the development of designated and accredited centres of reference; more professional training; multidisciplinary care; greater incentives for research and innovation; and more rapid access to effective treatments. Most of the countries studied have ongoing initiatives addressing many of these priorities; however, many are in early stages of development, or require additional funding and resources.Conclusion: Gaps in access to quality care are particularly concerning in many of Europe's lower-resourced countries. Equitable access to information, clinical trials, innovative treatments and quality specialist care should be available to all sarcoma patients. Achieving this across Europe will require close collaboration between all stakeholders at both the national and European level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this paper is to consider how changes in service planning and delivery might improve the care pathways for adult anorexia nervosa. Although anorexia nervosa has a long history in Europe, its framing as a mental disorder is quite recent. The changing forms and increasing epidemiology of eating disorders has led to the expansion of specialised services. Although some services provide care over the entire clinical course, more often services are divided into those that care for children and adolescents or adults. The transition needs to be carefully managed as currently these services may have a different ethos and expectations. Services for adults have a broad range of diversity (diagnostic subtype, medical severity, comorbidity, stage of illness and psychosocial functioning) all of which impacts on prognosis. A tailored, approach to treatment planning could optimise the pathway. Facilitating early help seeking and rapid diagnosis in primary care and reducing specialised services waiting lists for assessment and treatment could be a form of secondary prevention. The use of precision models and /or continuous outcome monitoring might reduce the third of patients who require more intensive care by applying augmentation strategies. Finally, gains from intensive care might be sustained by relapse prevention interventions and community support to bridge the transition home. Together these measures might reduce the proportion of patients (currently a third) with ill health for over 20 years. For this group rehabilitation strategies may improve functioning until new treatment emerge. Highlights: When considering the care pathway for adults with anorexia nervosa there are several pinch points which if remediated may improve patient flow and outcomes. First, improving awareness and recognition in primary care to facilitate early engagement in treatment.Second, reduce the time to access specialist treatment.Third, increasing the effectiveness of routine treatment (outpatient) possibly through a triage system with a precision planning and continuous monitoring with the provision of augmentation strategies.Fourth, the impact of inpatient care can be optimised by interventions that bridge the transition home and increase community support.Finally, a rehabilitation approach and new treatment strategies for those who do not respond to standard treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• European Cancer Organisation essential requirements for quality cancer care (ERQCC) are position papers on delivering high-quality care. • Each paper focuses on a cancer type, in this case lung cancer. • Lung cancer is a great societal burden and is challenging to treat. • High-quality care can only be a carried out in specialised units or centres. • The essential, multidisciplinary details for such centres are set out by the European Cancer Organisation expert group. European Cancer Organisation Essential Requirements for Quality Cancer Care (ERQCC) are written by experts representing all disciplines involved in cancer care in Europe. They give patients, health professionals, managers and policymakers a guide to essential care throughout the patient journey. Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality and has a wide variation in treatment and outcomes in Europe. It is a major healthcare burden and has complex diagnosis and treatment challenges. Care must only be carried out in lung cancer units or centres that have a core multidisciplinary team (MDT) and an extended team of health professionals detailed here. Such units are far from universal in European countries. To meet European aspirations for comprehensive cancer control, healthcare organisations must consider the requirements in this paper, paying particular attention to multidisciplinarity and patient-centred pathways from diagnosis, to treatment, to survivorship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Surgical care for patients with colorectal cancer has become increasingly standardized. The Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) protocol is a widely accepted structured care method to improve postoperative outcomes of patients after surgery. Despite growing evidence of effectiveness, adherence to the protocol remains challenging in practice. This study was designed to assess the adherence rate in daily practice and examine the relationship between the importance of interventions and adherence rate. Methods: This international observational, cross-sectional multicenter study was performed in 12 hospitals in four European countries. Patients were included from January 1, 2014. Data was retrospectively collected from the patient record by the local study coordinator. Results: A total of 230 patients were included in the study. Protocol adherence was analyzed for both the individual interventions and on patient level. The interventions with the highest adherence were antibiotic prophylaxis (95%), thromboprophylaxis (87%), and measuring body weight at admission (87%). Interventions with the lowest adherence were early mobilization-walking and sitting (9 and 6%, respectively). The adherence ranged between 16 and 75%, with an average of 44%. Conclusion: Our results show that the average protocol adherence in clinical practice is 44%. The variation on patient and hospital level is considerable. Only in one patient the adherence rate was >70%. In total, 30% of patients received 50% or more of the key interventions. A solid implementation strategy seems to be needed to improve the uptake of the ERAS pathway. The importance-performance matrix can help in prioritizing the areas for improvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the research methods and findings of the international Developing and validating Disease Management Evaluation methods for European health care systems (DISMEVAL) project. The real-world impact of exemplary European disease management practices was investigated in six countries using advanced analytic techniques.

Generally, in Europe quality assurance is demanded increasingly in health care settings. European Health Act specifies new demands concerning quality assurance through documentation, monitoring of health services and follow-up considering patient flow and optimal use of resources. The aim of this study was to investigate the agreement between European guidelines and clinical practice and the association between patient satisfaction and level of documentation, recommendations and improvements of voiding function in patients with benign prostate hypertrophy (BPH). The study population encompassed men between 60 and 80 years referred to specialist treatment due to lower urinary tract symptoms. Random samples of 250 medical records were extracted from national registers. Indicators were reported as proportions. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were reported as odds ratio with a 95% confidence interval. A total of 178 patient pathways were included, and the overall documentation rate was 77%. Agreement between national recommendations and clinical practice was found in 38%. No significant associations were found regarding patient satisfaction and level of documentation, adherence to national guidelines and improvements of the voiding function. There is a need for stringency in quality assessment and reporting indicators to national databases and increased application of European evidence-based guidelines. More complete are necessary for decision-makers in the future to qualify management of BPH rehabilitation ensuring the quality of the individual patient pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]