Cost-effectiveness of a shared-management delivery system for the care of children with cancer.

Costs of two alternative methods for obtaining comparable quality outpatient care for pediatric cancer patients were examined. Costs incurred in obtaining care from specialists, "specialist-management," were compared to costs incurred in obtaining "shared-management," care provided by specialists and primary physicians combined. Shared-management medical costs for outpatient care were 10% less than they would have been had the care been obtained from specialists. The nonmedical costs of transportation, parking, food away from home, and lost productivity or income were all less under the shared-management medical care delivery system than they would have been had specialist management been utilized. The total estimated cost differences between the alternative systems for the delivery of outpatient care ($2,191.34) represents for shared management a mean saving per patient of approximately 29% in direct out-of-pocket expenses and a 59% savings in the indirect costs of lost income or productivity. A total theoretical mean 41% saving per patient was shown to accrue through the use of shared management.

Physician incentives for shared management of childhood cancer patients.

Four years' experiences of 69 primary care physicians who delivered more than 70% of the chemotherapy to 174 children with cancer were assessed. Five academic pediatric oncologists were responsible for diagnosis, assignment to a clinical trial protocol, and overall management. The academicians saw the patients at diagnosis and at regularly scheduled intervals but provided care for less than 30% of the outpatient visits. Factors examined included: (1) why the primary care physicians agreed to participate in the care of these patients, (2) how they thought their participation affected the patient and the patient's family, (3) how participation affected their personal and professional development, (4) how participation affected their practice, (5) what their perceptions were concerning the merits of traditional specialist management, and (6) their overall evaluation of the Iowa shared-management program. The initial agreement by primary care physicians to participate in shared management was related to their perception that it would improve the overall care of their patients. The physicians agreed that the program saved the family time and money, was of educational value, personally satisfying, and not economically detrimental to their practice. They did not identify areas where specialist management had clear advantages over shared management and none reported dissatisfaction with this management program.

Health outcomes of a community-based therapy program for children with cancer--a shared-management approach.

Critical to providing cancer therapy to children in rural areas is finding dependable sources of therapy near the patients' homes. In this study, comparison was made of 668 visits by 24 patients to nearby private practitioners, who carried out 70% of the therapy, with 712 visits by 22 other patients for whom all care was managed by pediatric hematologist-oncologists. There was no significant difference by Wilcoxon rank sum test between the two groups in the accuracy with which protocol rules were followed, in the incidence of neutropenia, infection, fever, thrombocytopenia, drug toxicity, or the proportion of days hospitalized. The findings indicate that the private practitioners participating in a shared-management system were a dependable resource for providing 70% of the total cancer therapy to these patients.

Modes of cardiovascular regulation during middle childhood.

Obtaining meaningful baseline measures of children's cardiovascular activity (CVA) has been difficult because of constraints inherent to laboratory procedures that are used to assess individual differences in response to stress. To circumvent these problems, we performed repeated baseline measures of pulse rate (PR) and blood pressure for 174 children (aged 7-10 yr) in their natural school setting throughout 2 1-week periods. In addition, experimental assessments of cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) were conducted after each baseline period while children participated in a challenging cognitive task. Multivariate analyses of physiological indices revealed three primary styles of cardiovascular functioning. Two of them, characterizing children either with high PR and low blood pressure or conversely with low PR and high blood pressure, have already been described in the research literature. However, analyses also revealed a third group of children (48% of the subjects) who had both low PR and low blood pressure. Findings indicate developmental differences in cardiovascular regulation and highlight the need to consider both variations in baseline CVA as well as in CVR when examining children's physiological adaptation in everyday settings.

Clinical and occult testicular leukemia in long-term survivors of acute lymphoblastic leukemia.

Twenty-nine of 60 boys with acute lymphoblastic leukemia survived for more than 30 months and were potential candidates for discontinuation of therapy. Six patients developed overt clinical testicular leukemia: one at 34 months from diagnosis while receiving therapy and five at three to 17 months after therapy was stopped. Elective wedge biopsy of the testes has become part of the evaluation prior to discontinuation of therapy since 1977. Six of 18 boys had microscopic evidence of leukemic infiltration of the testes: four with diffuse involvement and two with focal clusters of leukemic cells. Testicular biopsy is recommended at the time of discontinuation of therapy and perhaps early in the course of the disease, although a negative biopsy does not exclude some focal lesions. The eventual outcome of those with occult testicular leukemia remains to be determined.