PATIENT-SEA: quality improvement for cancer diagnosis in primary care: incorporating the patient voice through significant event audit

Yorkshire, has one of the highest rates of cancer diagnosis and death in England. As a result, there are key questions in early cancer diagnosis research around patient access to and use of services, and how this can be improved to achieve better outcomes. Determining where and why late stage diagnoses occur is important.

Significant Event Audit (SEA) is a quality improvement (QI) technique that was developed in general practice as a means of providing a structured narrative analysis of the circumstances surrounding an incident or event of interest. We are developing a SEA template that can be used to help patients reflect on their pathway to cancer diagnosis.

We aim to improve early cancer diagnosis by enabling patients to reflect on their pathway to cancer diagnosis.

Currently, SEA only captures the voice of healthcare professionals. We believe this only represents half the story of cancer diagnosis in primary care, the patient voice is absent. We hope to address this by enabling patients and their families to reflect on their pathway to cancer diagnosis in primary care.

We are developing a SEA template specifically designed to allow patients to reflect on their pathway to cancer diagnosis, and to evaluate how adding the patient voice can facilitate quality improvement in practice.

We are developing the SEA template together with patients and carers, using an approach called ‘co-design’.

We are collaborating with patients, carers and family members, who have cancer diagnosis experience, either personally or as a carer or family member. We are also collaborating with health care professionals who work in primary care and cancer diagnosis.

This project is at the systematic review phase following which we will begin the co-design phase in the new year. We will share updates later in 2024.