The cardio-oncological patient journey: comparing experiences

Cardio-Oncology is becoming increasingly important due to a significant increase in the number of patients affected by both cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The latter aspect is related to the increased prevalence of cancer, the number of people surviving thanks to the introduction of new and effective treatments and the longer life expectancy associated to a more frequent onset of cardiovascular diseases in the ageing society.

In recent years, the consensus documents of scientific societies have emphasized the need to design patient pathways based on the principles of both patient centrality and multidisciplinarity in order to improve clinical outcomes and quality of life of patients, by contemporarily optimizing the use of human, technological and financial resources, and by ensuring the economic sustainability of the system.

The paper “The cardio-oncological patient journey: comparing experiences” is aimed at sharing experiences of organizational models in the management and treatment pathways of a cardio-oncological patient. These experiences are the result of the work of the “ECO – Experience in Cardio-Oncology”, a platform for dialogue and comparison aimed at exchanging experiences and reflections on clinical practices in the field of cardio-oncology. The referents of the Departments of Cardiology, Oncology and Internal Medicine of 9 excellent Italian healthcare facilities have joined the platform.

The study was carried out with the unconditional support of