Value-based healthcare and prognosis

Why is our research group formed?

Head and neck cancer and treatment can affect most fundamental functions of daily living including speech, swallowing, hearing and breathing. Additionally, treatment can lead to significant dysfunction and disfigurement and hence to psychosocial complaints. The integration of a e-Pro clinical support system can facilitate screening of symptoms and psychological distress.

Individualized prognostic models developed by our team, can further strengthen patient counselling, shared decision making and patient empowerment.

Our aim.

Innovations in the clinical practice to offer patients and their partners the best care and counselling during the whole disease trajectory, both in curative, recurrence and palliative phase.

Our focus.

This research line further built on more than 20 years of quality of life (QoL) research done by our Head & Neck Cancer (HNC) group in the Erasmus Medical Center. This resulted in several innovations in the clinical practice improving the QoL of patients, like the set-up of our Expert Center Palliative Care HNC patients, a modular patient information booklet called the ‘Zorggids’. In addition, individualized prognostic models were developed.

Value-based healthcare and shared decision making (SDM) with the use of an electronic patient-reported outcome structure (e-PRO) called the ‘Zorgmonitor’.

Personalized counselling by using prognostic models in clinical practice.

Collaborations within Erasmus MC

• (central) IT department
• Expertiseteam Waardegedreven Zorg
• Maatschappelijke Gezondheidszorg 

Collaborations outside Erasmus MC

• LUMC
• Radboudumc
• Patiëntenvereniging Hoofd Hals
• CBS
• IKNL

Principal investigator

Dr. Marinella Offerman

Our team:

• Robert Baatenburg de Jong
• Aniel Sewnaik
• Marinella Offerman
• Emilie Dronkers
• Arta Hoesseini
• Maarten Dorr
• Egge van der Poel
• Jose Hardillo
• Nikki van Leeuwen
• Hester Lingsma