Effective Management of Head and Neck Cancer Patients with an Improved Registration Program

Yoon, Yeo Hoon; Roh, Jong Lyel; Rha, Ki Sang; Park, Chan Il

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Registration programs of head and neck cancer (HNC) have been developed for better patient care and data acquisition. However, there is a lack of unified registration programs of HNC in Korea. We evaluated our new HNC registration program to help effective and systemic management of HNC patients in Chungnam National University Hospital. METHOD: A HNC registration program was developed by using a computer program of 'Delphi', based on patient's demographics, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up status. This partly cited prior HNC or other cancer registration programs and focused on the specification of the HNC.
RESULTS
The program composed of registration, search, and printing forms. The registration form consists of basic epidemiologic data, previous treatment history, cancer status including primary sites, clinical and pathologic stages, treatment modality and follow-up results. The search form used a multiple selection format to enable the data interchangeable to the Excel program for effective use. The program helped to update patient's current status, promptly select data for clinical studies of clinical cancers and better patient care. This program was simple, easy, convenient, time-saving for users and it included important HNC items.
CONCLUSION
Although this program is still in its primitive stage, this will be an useful tool for the registration and management of HNC patients. We suggest this program to be used nationwide to unify the registration of HNC patients and annual HNC reports, and increase cooperation among different centers.