title: Preventing delayed diagnosis of cancer: clinicians' views on main problems and solutions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Delayed diagnosis is a major contributing factor to the UK's lower cancer survival compared to many European countries. In the UK, there is a significant national variation in early cancer diagnosis. Healthcare providers can offer an insight into local priorities for timely cancer diagnosis. In this study, we aimed to identify the main problems and solutions relating to delay cancer diagnosis according to cancer care clinicians.
  
  
  METHODS
  We developed and implemented a new priority-setting approach called PRIORITIZE and invited North West London cancer care clinicians to identify and prioritize main causes for and solutions to delayed diagnosis of cancer care.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Clinicians identified a number of concrete problems and solutions relating to delayed diagnosis of cancer. Raising public awareness, patient education as well as better access to specialist care and diagnostic testing were seen as the highest priorities. The identified suggestions focused mostly on the delays during referrals from primary to secondary care.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Many identified priorities were feasible, affordable and converged around common themes such as public awareness, care continuity and length of consultation. As a timely, proactive and scalable priority-setting approach, PRIORITZE could be implemented as a routine preventative system for determining patient safety issues by frontline staff.
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK.
authors.forename: Lorainne Tudor
authors.initials: LT
authors.lastname: Car
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK.
authors.forename: Nikolaos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Papachristou
authors.affiliation: Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, ‎St Mary's Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Urch
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK.
authors.forename: Azeem
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Majeed
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK.
authors.forename: Mona
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: El-Khatib
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Aylin
authors.affiliation: Department of Global Health and Population & Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard School of Public Health, Harvard, Boston, USA.
authors.forename: Rifat
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Atun
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary Care and Public Health, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, UK; Health Services and Outcomes Research Programme, LKCMedicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore.
authors.forename: Josip
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Car
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Psychology, Medical Sciences Division, University of Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Vincent
mesh_terms: D057210:Delayed Diagnosis / Q000517:prevention & control*; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians' / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom / Q000453:epidemiology