Risk Stratified Follow Up:
What you need to know
A ‘pathway’ is a term which captures what happens to the patient from diagnosis, through treatment and onto follow up. Which follow up pathway an individual will follow will depend on the type of cancer, the risk to the patient, how early the cancer has been diagnosed and how fast the cancer is developing.
Risk Stratified Follow Up describes how each individual will be monitored after their cancer treatment.
Four generic follow up pathways are described:
- supported self management, remote monitoring and timely re-access.
- health professional led follow up
- supportive and palliative care
- end to end of life
Which follow up pathway is ‘right’ for each person is discussed within the Multi Disciplinary Team meeting (MDT) and with the individual following their cancer treatment. Some people may start on one pathway and move to another. Undertaking an HNA and developing a care plan can also inform decisions about which people are more suited to stratified pathways.
For example:
An individual may be classified as ‘low risk’ clinically but if they lack social support and networks this may mean they will still require more intensive support. In this kind of situation, the HNA and care plan function as necessary triangulation tools for stratification by helping to uncover the level of intensity of support a person requires. In this case the support required would social support .
