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The Role of Quality Measures in Improving Breast Cancer Care in Low-Income Countries

  • Global Breast Cancer (BO Anderson and C Duggan, Section Editors)
  • Published:
Current Breast Cancer Reports Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose of Review

Measurement of the quality of cancer care is foundational to quality improvement, and widely pursued in high-income countries. However, cancer care quality measurement has not yet been systematically attempted in low-income countries (LICs). We aimed to describe key considerations in developing quality measures for breast cancer care in LICs, and explore challenges and next steps.

Recent Findings

There are no published reports of systematically developed quality measures from LICs, and few reports of care quality. However, existing resource-stratified treatment guidelines can help facilitate measure development. Key steps will include identifying how measures based on evidence from high-resource settings can and should be adapted. Retention in care and equity are particularly pressing to measure in LICs. Challenges include limited data infrastructure for care assessment and measure validation.

Summary

Developing rigorous strategies for the measurement of cancer care is a critical step for understanding and improving the cancer care quality in LICs.

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Funding

Lydia E. Pace has received K07 Career Development Award grant 1K07CA215819-01A1 from the National Cancer Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Women’s Health, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Lydia E. Pace

  2. Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Nancy L. Keating

Authors
  1. Lydia E. Pace
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  2. Nancy L. Keating
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lydia E. Pace.

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Conflict of Interest

Lydia E. Pace and Nancy L. Keating declare no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Global Breast Cancer

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Pace, L.E., Keating, N.L. The Role of Quality Measures in Improving Breast Cancer Care in Low-Income Countries. Curr Breast Cancer Rep 10, 196–201 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12609-018-0288-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12609-018-0288-5

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