Good cancer care is multidisciplinary, sub-specialized, and highly coordinated. There are hundreds of healthcare moments that impact outcome for each individual patient. Measuring every moment is impractical, but the patient journey can be distilled down to a small number of key measurable points, called quality performance indicators (QPIs). It is accepted that measurement of QPIs improves quality of care directly by identifying high and under-performing providers in a health system, and indirectly by providing targets that the system can aspire too.

 

Previously, there were no QPIs available for neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), and NET rarity and heterogeneity makes QPI development difficult. We conducted a study on behalf of CommNETs, with the aim to develop a set of QPIs specific to NETs. This process has provided a brilliant opportunity for collaboration not only between countries but also amongst disciplines, and we are grateful to each person involved!

 

Ten QPIs were selected using a consensus method, and published in Journal of Clinical Medicine (https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0383/8/9/1455).  This project was supported by the NZ Ministry of Health.  Future work will involve working with the Ministry’s Cancer Services to seek wider sector review, followed by national implementation. We propose that these NET QPIs are used to monitor and improve care for people with NETs in NZ, and to facilitate international comparison.