DISSERTATION

Apply the recommendations resulting from our founder's dissertation 

AND experience what you will achieve

DISSERTATION

Apply the recommendations resulting from our founder's dissertation AND experience what you will achieve

Aim & Conclusion

The central question of this dissertation was whether available methods and instruments can serve as a basis for the realization of an integrated patient-driven approach to targeted therapy-associated side effects.

The conclusion of Dr. Boers-Doets's thesis was that targeted therapy-associated side effects should be approached in an integrated, interdisciplinary team model of care and in a systematic fashion. The co-care model proposed in her thesis offers a framework for this approach in which the three findings in her thesis can be embedded:

  • The development of a combined three-part patient-reported assessment and grading instrument that maps the symptoms and signs of a side effect and their impact on health-related quality of life.
  • The generation of evidence-based targeted therapy-associated side effect treatment guidelines.
  • Establishing training programs for healthcare providers especially for those involved in clinical trials and those who work on a daily basis with patients on targeted therapies is indicated.

Her thesis was intended to provide an early view into a patient-driven approach to targeted anticancer therapy-associated side effects conceptual co-care model which is expected to have a future impact on improving the patients’ quality of life, improving the outcome of the targeted anticancer therapy, and lower the costs of side effects treatment.

Our Founders dissertation is based on the TARGET strategy. Initiation of the most appropriate side effect treatment is more likely to occur if the 6 steps of the TARGET-strategy are taken.

Learn more about the TARGET-strategy here.