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Dr. Sara Tinsley-Vance, PhD and advanced practice AML nurse from Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida, discusses her poster at the 2022 annual ASH meeting titled "Discordance between Patient Goals and Treatment in Older AML Patients" evaluating the treatment goals of older patients with AML.
The goal of Dr. Tinsley-Vance's poster is to focus on shared decision making and helping older patients make the best decicions when they are diagnosed with AML. The idea for her work came out of taking care of patients and listening to them tell her that their major concern when starting treatment is how it is going to physically affect them and their quality of life. Dr. Tinsley-Vance acknowledges that shared decision making is the center of patient care. Shared decision making is a process where a patient works in partnership with their healthcare team and fully understands what they are getting into when they make a decision about their treatment, including both survival time and quality of life. In this abstract, Dr. Tinsley-Vance asks patients whether they want improved quality of life even if their life may be shortened or if they would prefer to live longer even if their quality of life is greatly compromised.
Dr. Tinsley-Vance found that the majority of patients really wanted improved quality of life over survival. Their main goal was to feel better and to be able to do the things that are meaningful to them over living longer. It's important to note that most participatants in this study were white men. She also found that there was a lack of consistency between the patient's treatment goals and the intensity of the treatment they received. This information underscores the need for a comprehensive clinical decision-making model which captures the goals of the patient and provides detailed symptom and quality of life data related to treatment options and treatment intensity. Dr. Tinsley-Vance is hopeful that this ongoing study will continue to answer questions regarding quality of life and better align the patient's treatment with their goals.
Dr. Sara Tinsley-Vance, PhD and advanced practice AML nurse from Moffitt Cancer Center in Florida, discusses her poster at the 2022 annual ASH meeting titled "Discordance between Patient Goals and Treatment in Older AML Patients" evaluating the treatment goals of older patients with AML.
The goal of Dr. Tinsley-Vance's poster is to focus on shared decision making and helping older patients make the best decicions when they are diagnosed with AML. The idea for her work came out of taking care of patients and listening to them tell her that their major concern when starting treatment is how it is going to physically affect them and their quality of life. Dr. Tinsley-Vance acknowledges that shared decision making is the center of patient care. Shared decision making is a process where a patient works in partnership with their healthcare team and fully understands what they are getting into when they make a decision about their treatment, including both survival time and quality of life. In this abstract, Dr. Tinsley-Vance asks patients whether they want improved quality of life even if their life may be shortened or if they would prefer to live longer even if their quality of life is greatly compromised.
Dr. Tinsley-Vance found that the majority of patients really wanted improved quality of life over survival. Their main goal was to feel better and to be able to do the things that are meaningful to them over living longer. It's important to note that most participatants in this study were white men. She also found that there was a lack of consistency between the patient's treatment goals and the intensity of the treatment they received. This information underscores the need for a comprehensive clinical decision-making model which captures the goals of the patient and provides detailed symptom and quality of life data related to treatment options and treatment intensity. Dr. Tinsley-Vance is hopeful that this ongoing study will continue to answer questions regarding quality of life and better align the patient's treatment with their goals.
about the author
Katie Braswell
Katie joined HealthTree as the Community Director for AML in 2021. She is a registered dietitian who previously worked at the VA hospital in Dallas, Texas where she coached veterans with blood cancer on how to use nutrition to improve their treatment outcomes and minimize cancer-related side effects. Katie is passionate about health education and patient empowerment. In her spare time, she loves to experiment with new recipes in the kitchen, spend time running outdoors and travel to new places.
