Beyond Satisfaction: What Patients Ask during on-Treatment Medical Physics Consults
Abstract
Purpose
Medical physics patient consults are increasingly used to support patient understanding during radiotherapy and yet there is no consensus in the medical physics community as to what communications methods are most effective. We characterized patient-generated questions from consults across a large population of patients (disease sites including prostate, pediatrics, complex head and neck, TBI, etc.) and treatment modalities (protons, photons, and electrons) to inform future strategies for patient communications.
Methods
Post-consult surveys collected free-text questions and comments from patients seen in on-treatment medical physics consults at our institution across multiple sites of practice, disease sites, and a broad range of modalities. Responses were sorted into themes and topics (allowing more than one theme per response). We report theme frequencies, and which questions patients find most valuable.
Results
Of 212 survey responses, 158 (74.5%) contained free-text questions/comments. The most frequent theme was Treatment Plan/Organ Sparing (101/158, 63.9%). Technology/Mechanics (49/158, 31.0%) and Logistics/Process (30/158, 19.0%) were next most common, while Modality/Comparisons (13/158, 8.2%) and Quality Assurance/Safety (8/158, 5.1%) were less frequent. The topics patients reported as most useful were seeing their individual treatment plans (91/158, 57.6%), followed by how organs are spared (34/158, 21.5%), and treatment mechanics/beam generation (24/158, 15.2%).
Conclusion
Patients’ questions during on-treatment physics consults were consistent across disease sites and modalities and were dominated by a desire to see and understand their individualized treatment plan. To our knowledge, this represents one of the largest and most diverse datasets on this topic. Although the sample is weighted towards prostate treatments, the findings suggest that standardizing consults around common themes may better align education with patient needs. It may also encourage greater patient engagement, particularly for treatments requiring active participation such as breath-hold, bladder/rectal filling, or immobilization-dependent treatments.