Precision oncology implementation in a regional-based health care system: A professional consensus to define the pathway

Objective

Precision Oncology requires deep changes in organizational settings but little evidence has been identified about the best strategy to guarantee the delivery of this innovation to patients. In the Italian health care system, high heterogeneity could jeopardize equal access opportunity for patients. Following a consensus method, we aim to define shared solutions to address these issues in clinical practice.

Method

A Delphi RAND method was chosen to record the consensus among involved health care professionals in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia. The item generation phase was conducted following a bottom-up approach.

Results

Ten statements were defined on the main topics that emerged from the direct observation of the current practice, focusing on Molecular Tumor Board organization, massive parallel sequencing technology application, laboratory report content and informed consensus submission. All the statements reached a strong consensus and have been shared with the health care government authorities of our region.

Conclusions

The direct observation of the current practice in different health care authorities allowed to define ten statements as solution proposals to solve the identified complexities. This methodological approach could be applied in different organizational models but aiming to achieve a homogeneous clinical outcome for patients.