Facilitators and barriers to clinical practice guideline-consistent supportive care at pediatric oncology institutions: a Children’s Oncology Group study

Sugalski AJ, Lo T, Beauchemin M, Grimes AC, Robinson PD, Walsh AM, Santesso N, Dang H, Fisher BT, Wrightson AR, Yu LC, Sung L, Dupuis LL. Facilitators and barriers to clinical practice guideline-consistent supportive care at pediatric oncology institutions: a Children’s Oncology Group study. Implement Sci Commun. 2021 Sep 16;2(1):106. doi: 10.1186/s43058-021-00200-2. PubMed PMID: 34530933; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC8447588.

Clinical practice guideline (CPG)-consistent care improves patient outcomes, but CPG implementation is poor. Little is known about CPG implementation in pediatric oncology. This study aimed to understand supportive care CPG implementation facilitators and barriers at pediatric oncology National Cancer Institute (NCI) Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) institutions. Healthcare professionals at 26 pediatric, Children’s Oncology Group-member, NCORP institutions were invited to participate in face-to-face focus groups. Serial focus groups were held until saturation of ideas was reached. Supportive care CPG implementation facilitators and barriers were solicited using nominal group technique (NGT), and implementation of specific supportive care CPG recommendations was discussed. Notes from each focus group were analyzed using a directed content analysis. The top five themes arising from an analysis of NGT items were identified, first from each focus group and then across all focus groups.