Planning, implementation and operation of a personalized patient management system for subjects with first suspect of cancer (OnkoNetwork): system description based on a qualitative study

Background: OnkoNetwork is a recently established integrated care model with a personalized pathway system to manage patients with first suspect of a solid tumour in secondary care, that evolved as a regional initiative in Hungary. The primary aim of OnkoNetwork is the improvement of clinical outcomes via timely access to quality assured and defragmented healthcare services. The Horizon 2020 funded SELFIE project has selected OnkoNetwork for in-depth qualitative and quantitative evaluation. The aim of this study was to provide a qualitative evaluation of OnkoNetwork along the six components of the SELFIE conceptual framework: 1) service delivery, 2) leadership and governance, 3) workforce, 4) financing, 5) technologies and medical products, and 6) information and research. Methods: Analysis of published and grey programme documentation, followed by 20 semi-structured interviews with representatives of programme initiators, general and financial managers, involved physicians and nonphysician professionals, patients and their informal caregivers. Transcripts of all interviews were analysed by Mayring’s content analysis method by two independent researchers. Results: This study yielded the first comprehensive description of the programme. OnkoNetwork is a blue dahila in Central and Eastern Europe, providing timely and quality-assured healthcare services for the target patients by personalized patient path monitoring and management in a financially sustainable manner without macro-level financing of its