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Table 1 DAP standards

From: How can diagnostic assessment programs be implemented to enhance inter-professional collaborative care for cancer?

Component

Description

Team composition

Administrative

 

• Director/manager

• Reception, clerical and bookings

Health professionals

• Assessment coordinators (examples):

• Radiologists

• Pathologists

• Primary care

• Psychosocial support

Specialists

• Surgeon specialists

• Respirologists (lung)

• Endoscopists (colorectal and other)

Technicians

• Ultrasound technologists

• Mammographers (breast)

Scope of diagnostic activity

Examination

(diagnostic activity differs depending on disease site)

• Physical exam

• Other disease site specific

Imaging, diagnostic and staging procedures

• Ultrasound

• MRI

• X-ray

• CT scan

• PET

• Upper endoscopy

• Colonoscopy

• Bronchoscopy

• Cystoscopy

• Bone scan

• Mammography

• Other disease site specific

Surgical consultation and procedures

• Biopsy

• Fine needle aspiration cytology

• Biopsy

Pathology and laboratory medicine

• Standardized surgical pathology requisition forms

• Routine analysis and pathology reporting

• Special pathological studies such as markers, flow, molecular, etc

• Clinical lab testing of tumour markers, hematology, etc.

Supportive care

• Education/psychosocial support

• Dietetics

• Genetic counselling

• Other supportive services

• Access

• Regionalized, centralized

• One stop

• Virtual

• Entry point

• Primary care providers or specialist

• Screening program

• Self referral

• Operational features

• Entry

• Fast access booking

• Priority booking

• Open-access booking

• DAP core elements

• Assessment coordinator

• Multidisciplinary care conference (MCC) team/treatment team

• Cross-DAP collaboration

• Provincial indicators of quality for cancer DAPs

• Time intervals

• Clinical outcomes

• Quality of care

• Patient satisfaction

• Guidelines, standards and services frameworks

• Guidelines and service frameworks for primary care providers

• Evidence-based investigative algorithms and guidance documents

• Wait-times benchmarks