Harris, MichaelThulesius, HansNeves, Ana LuisaHarker, SophieKoskela, TuomasPetek, DavorinaHoffman, RobertBrekke, MetteBuczkowski, KrzysztofBuono, NicolaCostiug, EmilianaDinant, Geert-JanForeva, GerganaJakob, EvaMarzo-Castillejo, MerceMurchie, PeterSawicka-Powierza, JolantaSchneider, AntoniusSmyrnakis, EmmanouilStreit, SvenTaylor, GordonVedsted, PeterWeltermann, BirgittaEsteva, Magdalena2024-09-102024-09-102019-09Harris M, Thulesius H, Neves AL, Harker S, Koskela T, Petek D, et al. How European primary care practitioners think the timeliness of cancer diagnosis can be improved: a thematic analysis. BMJ Open. 2019 Sep;9(9):e030169.2044-6055http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13003/17144https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12105/22671Background: National European cancer survival rates vary widely. Prolonged diagnostic intervals are thought to be a key factor in explaining these variations. Primary care practitioners (PCPs) frequently play a crucial role during initial cancer diagnosis; their knowledge could be used to improve the planning of more effective approaches to earlier cancer diagnosis. Objectives: This study sought the views of PCPs from across Europe on how they thought the timeliness of cancer diagnosis could be improved. Design In an online survey, a final open-ended question asked PCPs how they thought the speed of diagnosis of cancer in primary care could be improved. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Setting A primary care study, with participating centres in 20 European countries. Participants: A total of 1352 PCPs answered the final survey question, with a median of 48 per country. Results: The main themes identified were: patient-related factors, including health education; care provider-related factors, including continuing medical education; improving communication and interprofessional partnership, particularly between primary and secondary care; factors relating to health system organisation and policies, including improving access to healthcare; easier primary care access to diagnostic tests; and use of information technology. Re-allocation of funding to support timely diagnosis was seen as an issue affecting all of these. Conclusions: To achieve more timely cancer diagnosis, health systems need to facilitate earlier patient presentation through education and better access to care, have well-educated clinicians with good access to investigations and better information technology, and adequate primary care cancer diagnostic pathway funding.enghttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/Delivery of Health CarePrimary Health CareGeneral PractitionersCancerDiagnosisConsultation and ReferralHumansresearch articleAttribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International3155138299e03016910.1136/bmjopen-2019-030169BMJ Openopen accessTasa de SupervivenciaPersonal de SaludEuropa (Continente)Actitud del Personal de SaludAccesibilidad a los Servicios de SaludNecesidades y Demandas de Servicios de SaludHumanosNeoplasiasDerivación y ConsultaDiagnóstico TardíoEncuestas y CuestionariosEducación del Paciente como AsuntoAtención Primaria de SaludMejoramiento de la Calidad2-s2.0-85072596947497787600252L629441513