[Evaluation of therapy of patients with rectal carcinoma. Goals of healing (outcome) and implementation of the quality of life concept in total medical care].
Quality of life (QL) assessment by means of standardised scales allows a valid representation of an individual's subjective sense of well-being in three dimensions: somatic (intensity and frequency of symptoms), psychological (anxiety, depression) and social (family life, employment, sexuality). The question, however, whether routine measurement, documentation and analysis of QL-data could lead to an improvement of patient care is still unsolved. Studies with a clearly defined practical goal in collaboration with physicians and patients should help to resolve this issue. The introduction of the QL concept into everyday clinical practice first requires that this tool is understandable and valuable to the clinician. In this respect, we propose to integrate the factor QL into a broader outcome-concept in parallel to the classical quality indicators (outcome-criteria), to demonstrate individual patient's clinical and therapeutical course in the form of QL-profiles and to correlate the patient's actual clinical and psychosocial situation with the results of QL measurement. We illustrate the feasibility of a stepwise concept of implementation of the QL concept by demonstrating interim results of our field trial on regional management and care of patients with rectal carcinoma in the county of Marburg-Biedenkopf.
Kopp
I
I
Klinik für Allgemeinchirurgie, Klinikum der Philipps-Universität Marburg. kopp@mailer.uni-marburg.de
Koller
M
M
Rothmund
M
M
Lorenz
W
W
D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D011788:Quality of Life; D012004:Rectal Neoplasms / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D015996:Survival Rate