Passport for Care developed to improve health of childhood cancer survivors
By Dana Benson
A new program developed by doctors at Baylor College of Medicine and Texas Children’s Cancer Center is designed to help pediatric cancer survivors live longer, healthier lives.
Passport for Care is an innovative web-based application that provides childhood cancer survivors and their physicians access to diagnosis and treatment history as well as detailed, personalized health care recommendations based on national survivorship care guidelines.
The launch of the program was announced Oct. 8. Anita Perry, wife of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who spoke at the launch said, “Passport for Care is an incredible health care tool that will reinvent the way we treat pediatric cancer survivors and will improve their health for years to come."
Crucial time
The program comes at a crucial time, noted David Poplack, M.D., who developed Passport for Care. There are currently about 300,000 childhood cancer survivors in the United States – and with the pediatric cancer cure rate now at 75 percent, that number is expected to grow. Poplack is director of the Texas Children’s Cancer Center and deputy director of BCM’s Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center.
Poplack developed the program in collaboration with C. Michael Fordis Jr., M.D., founding director of the Center for Collaborative and Interactive Technologies and senior associate dean and director of the BCM Office of Continuing Medical Education; Marc Horowitz, M.D., director of program development at the Texas Children’s Cancer Center and professor of pediatrics – hematology-oncology at BCM; and ZoAnn Dreyer, M.D., associate professor of pediatrics – hematology-oncology at BCM and director of the Long Term Survivor Clinic at the Texas Children’s Cancer Center.
Survivor health issues
Although they have overcome childhood cancer, the survivor population still faces significant health issues. Some 70 percent of childhood cancer survivors will develop chronic medical problems related to their original diagnosis within 30 years time, according to a 2006 study in the New England Journal of Medicine. Some of these health issues include infertility, secondary malignancies and organ dysfunction, Poplack said.
There are other issues too. There is a shortage of survivorship programs and physicians trained in follow-up care. What’s more, survivors themselves are often unfamiliar with their specific cancer and the treatment and surgeries they received. Given these issues, it’s not surprising that the Institute of Medicine, President’s Cancer Panel and Centers for Disease Control have identified cancer survivorship as a national health priority.
Program features
Some of the features of Passport for Care include:
- A care summary section that details the diagnosis and surgical, chemotherapy and radiation histories.
- Guidelines section, which lists possible side effects to treatments that were given and what evaluations should be performed to screen for possible late effects and how often.
- Updates and news section that outlines any changes to a survivor’s health guidelines and provides links to survivorship issues that have appeared in the news. Survivors can also search for community resources – such as support groups – by zip code.
The personalized recommendations and treatment plans are generated from the survivor’s medical history and use the most up-to-date guidelines for care developed by the Children's Oncology Group, an international consortium of childhood cancer centers.
"Just a click of a button transforms complex follow-up guidelines into a user-friendly, personalized report,” Poplack said.
Expansion plan
The program was piloted at the Texas Children’s Cancer Center, where nearly 400 survivor care plans have been created. The goal is to make the Passport for Care available to all 238 Children’s Oncology Group member institutions by 2010.
“We must do all in our power to ensure the future health of cancer survivors,” Poplack said. “This will truly revolutionize care and management for survivors and their physicians.”
The Texas Children’s Cancer Center is a major component of the Dan L. Duncan Cancer Center at BCM.
