A research team launches a questionnaire to find out how cancer patients experienced the treatment of the disease

The European 4D PICTURE project investigates so that the cancer patient reaches the moments of shared decision-making with the best information and for this it is necessary to know their experience during treatment

With the participation of nine countries, they are researching innovative algorithms that help better predict the results of cancer treatment, including patient experience and preferences.

The European 4D PICTURE project has been working for a year to improve the cancer patient journey and ensure that personal preferences are respected. Your goal is Help cancer patients, their families and healthcare professionals better understand the options available. As well as supporting your treatment and care options at each stage of the disease, based on evidence from a large amount of European data.

Now, the project, in which nine European countries participate, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovenia, the United Kingdom, Denmark, Sweden and Spain, takes another step to continue learning about the experience of cancer patients with a new survey aimed at those people who are undergoing cancer treatment or have been in the last three years.

A consortium in which the University of Zaragoza participates, through the Engineering Research Institute of Aragon (I3A), the Aragon Health Research Institute (IIS Aragón), the Medical Oncology Service of the Miguel Servet University Hospital and the consulting firm Fractal. Strategy.

Cancer patients They have to face complex decision-making processes throughout the treatment to be followed, because there are different options that vary in terms of risk profiles and effects on the patient's survival and quality of life.

Answering this questionnaire will help researchers to better understand experiences and attitudes related to treatment decision making, the best ways to share information, the possible value of decision support tools, and positive and negative experiences with care trajectories oncology of patients.

In the Medical Oncology Service of the Miguel Servet University Hospital, Dr. Antonio Antón, head of the service, and Dr. Roberto Pazo, hospital oncologist and principal investigator of this project at the Aragón Health Research Institute, are part of the team. as responsible, together with Jorge Sierra, professor of the Department of Design and Manufacturing Engineering of the School of Engineering and Architecture (EINA) and researcher at the I3A Unizar, and the consulting firm specialized in the design of public health services, Fractal Strategy, led by Carlos Romero. All of them collaborate in a coordinated manner in the implementation of the methodology.

The 4D PICTURE project has a duration of five years, has a budget of nine million euros, financed by Horizon Europe funds. It is developed in a European consortium by a multidisciplinary team that integrates health research, data science, epidemiology, biostatistics, research on innovation and design, computational linguistics, health economics, science of implementation, social sciences and humanities, leveraging and uniting existing productive collaborations.