Abstract P5-15-11: The distress screening tool: Initial experience with electronically curated patient reported measures
Authors: Hwang Shelley , Power Steve , Stashko Ilona , Blitzblau Rachel , Greenup Rachel , Horton Janet , Westbrook Kellly , Blackwell Kimberly , Sperling Heather , Peppercorn Jeffrey , Kimmick Gretchen , Marcom Kelly 
Published: May 2015

Background: In June 2013, our health system transitioned to an electronic medical record (EMR) which included collecting patient quality of life data at each clinic visit. We used the NCCN distress thermometer (DT), a short, simple to use, self-report measure which uses a 10-point scale from 0 (no distress) to 10 (extreme distress) as well as an associated problem checklist which queries the source(s) of their distress. Among our breast cancer clinic population, we studied the severity and sources of distress as well as whether the DT score was associated with stage at diagnosis and time interval since diagnosis.

Methods: Between October 1, 2013 and April 30, 2014, starting 3 months after implementation of a comprehensive EMR, all patients seen at our tertiary breast cancer clinic were asked to complete the DT survey at each clinic visit. DT data were collected and entered into the EMR at point of care. The DT tool was correlated with demographic and tumor information from our prospectively curated electronic datamart.

Results: We collected 7276 DT surveys from 3267 unique patients over seven months. Median age of the cohort was 60 years; 73% were white and 21% were black. Among those with available staging data and a diagnosis of breast cancer, stage distribution was 10% stage 0, 34% stage I, 37% stage II, 15% stage III and 4% stage IV. The median reported distress score was 1.0 (range 0-10) with score distribution shown in Figure 1. The most commonly reported source of stress was fatigue (8.0%) followed by pain (6.8%). For new patient appointments the most commonly reported sources were worry (9.5%) followed by nervousness (8.0%). There was no significant correlation between overall distress score and stage at diagnosis. Among patients who were seen more than once during the study interval, the DT score changed for 33.7% of patients. The lowest distress scores were reported among women &gt;3 years from initial diagnosis.

Conclusions: The transition to an integrated EMR system has allowed collection of analyzable patient reported data to inform medical and psychosocial intervention. Structured data collection at point of care allows for efficient identification of and management for the major sources of distress among patients during breast cancer treatment and survivorship.

Citation Format: Shelley Hwang, Steve Power, Ilona Stashko, Rachel Blitzblau, Rachel Greenup, Janet Horton, Kellly Westbrook, Kimberly Blackwell, Heather Sperling, Jeffrey Peppercorn, Gretchen Kimmick, Kelly Marcom. The distress screening tool: Initial experience with electronically curated patient reported measures [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-15-11.