A best practice advisory alert placed within patients’ electronic medical records led to a 450% increase in oncofertility care referrals at Philadelphia-based Fox Chase Cancer Center, according to a study released at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting.
The alert, implemented in July 2024, appeared in the EMR of patients between the ages of 18 and 50 after physicians placed an order for chemotherapy or immunotherapy. The alert asked physicians if they would like to refer the patient to Fox Chase’s oncofertility team, according to a May 31 news release from the cancer center.
Physicians were able to respond to the alert by sending a direct message to the oncofertility team to begin the referral procedure if the patient accepted the service. Within 48 hours of the referral, the oncofertility team would reach out to the patient to discuss fertility preservation.
“Clinicians are often trying to cover many components of the patient’s care, including diagnosis, treatment plans and prognosis, which can result in fertility discussions being overlooked,” Christopher Cann, MD, director of the Young Adult Cancer program at Fox Chase and lead author of the study, said in the release. “The [alert] integrates that reminder into the clinical workflow and makes referrals easier.”
Read the full abstract here.
