The UNC Lineberger Patient-Reported Outcomes Center of Excellence recently held its inaugural retreat. The afternoon meeting served as the center’s official launch, bringing together more than 30 faculty members, collaborators and staff to discuss the center’s goals and to hear talks on its priorities, including research focused on measuring and managing cancer treatment side-effects and the implementation of patient-reported outcomes in cancer care.
Lynne Wagner, PhD, who came to UNC from Wake Forest School of Medicine last year, is the center’s director. She said she was drawn to UNC Lineberger by its highly respected and robust patient-reported outcomes research and its Cancer Outcomes Research Program. Led by Ethan Basch, MD, MSc, and Stephanie Wheeler, PhD, MPH, the program has 58 members, including 17 who conduct patient-reported outcomes research.
“Patient-reported outcomes are a methodologically robust way of bringing the patient voice into clinical trials, and into clinical care, and so in that regard, this is a powerful way to understand patients’ experiences and provide them with better care and optimize outcomes,” Wagner said.
In the months ahead, Wagner said the Patient-Reported Outcomes Center of Excellence will focus on creating more opportunities to bring researchers together to discuss their work and opportunities for collaboration, both in research and in clinical implementation.
The Patient-Reported Outcomes Center of Excellence leadership team includes Basch, Antonia Bennett, PhD, Mattias Jonsson and Bill Wood, MD, MPH. Pam Raper, BSN, RN, program manager, will coordinate the center’s activities.