Healthcare Providers FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions For Healthcare Providers
Is there an example of a completed care plan I can view?
Yes, click here to view an example of a completed care plan.
Where does the information in the plan come from?
All the information provided in the plan comes from the medical literature, established practice guidelines, or the recommendations of experts in the pediatric cancer survivorship field. You can see a list of references we have used on the OncoLife page.
Can I use the program to create care plans for patients in my clinic?
Absolutely! We want the care plan to be a useful resource to help oncology clinics around the world meet the needs of their cancer survivors.
Why can't I include a patient's dose in the plan?
It is important to distinguish the Smart ALACC Care Plan from a treatment summary. The treatment summary is used to provide the patient and other healthcare providers with information such as surgery details, pathology results, chemotherapy, and radiation treatment plans and courses, including the doses. The Smart ALACC Care Plan is not a treatment summary. Feel free to use our
to create this document for your patient.
Can you list local resources in the plan?
Because the care plan is a national and international resource, we do not include local resources. We suggest that each clinic create a handout of favorite local resources to be distributed along with the care plan.
What is the best way to distribute the plan?
Your patient's plan can be printed out, either to hand them a hard copy or to keep a copy in their chart. However, it is best viewed online, as this is the only way to maintain the web links within the care plan. We encourage healthcare providers to either save the plan as a PDF and then email it, or email it directly from the care plan program- both methods will allow the patient to utilize the links within the plan.
Can I save a plan I am working on?
Unfortunately, you cannot. We do not want to store a patient's treatment information, therefore we decided not to allow the saving of plans in progress. The good news is that the plan takes health care providers an average of 4-5 minutes to complete.
Do I need to register?
No, the program is free to use and requires no registration.
What do you do with the user's answers to the questionnaire?
We collect the answers to conduct ongoing research and to guide periodic improvements to the program. All answers are kept confidential and are used in de-identified aggregate data form.
Why don't you ask for chemotherapy or radiation doses?
This program was originally created with the survivor as the primary user, though this has changed over time. We felt that patients would not necessarily know the dose of chemotherapy or radiation that they received. We also found that, in most cases, the dose would not change recommendations for survivorship care. Furthermore, we were concerned that asking for specific doses may deter users, so we opted not to ask about doses. The one exception is with anthracycline chemotherapy, which we ask for a dose level (low, medium, or high), though patients can also choose "I don't know".
What is the "Healthcare Provider Summary"?
The healthcare provider summary is a short summary and a bullet point list of the recommendations in the patient's care plan, which the patient can share with their primary care team or other healthcare provider involved in their care.
How can I test the program for myself or demonstrate it for others in my clinic?
Because we use the data from patient care plans for research and to guide changes and enhancements, we ask that if you are creating a test or sample plan, use this link to create the plan. This will allow us to exclude those answers from the analysis.
Does my patient need to be present when I fill out the questionnaire?
We have heard this done both ways- some HCPs prefer to create plans the day before the clinic, without the patient present, while some choose to do it with the patient present. Use the workflow that best fits your needs.
Do you have a list of survivorship clinics
We do, please visit the Survivorship Clinic List. Consider submitting your clinic to the listing as well.
