Outcome of the Gynecologic Oncology Patients Surveillance Network Program

The gynecologic oncology patients surveillance network program was conducted with the collaboration of 5provincial hospitals located in the north of Thailand (Chiang Rai, Lamphun Nan, Phayao and Phrae). The aimwas to identify ways of reducing the burden and the cost to the gynecologic cancer patients who needed to travelto the tertiary care hospital for follow up. The clinical data of each patient was transferred to the provincialhospital by the internet via the website www.gogcmu.or.th. All the general gynecologists who participated in thisproject attended the training course set up for the program. From January 2011 to February 2014, 854 patientswho were willing to have their next follow-up at the network hospitals close to their home were enrolled thisproject. Almost of them were residents in Chiang Rai province and the most common disease was cervical cancer.After the project had been running for 1 year, 604 of the enrolled patients and 21 health-care personnel who hadparticipated in this project were interviewed to assess its success. Some 85.3% of the patients and 100% of thehealth-care personnel were satisfied with this project. However, 60 patients had withdrawn, the most commonreason being the lack of confidence in the follow up at the local provincial hospital. In conclusion, it is possibleto initiate a gynecologic oncology patients’ surveillance network program and the initiation could reduce theproblems associated with and the cost the patients incurred as they journeyed to the tertiary care hospital.