Dr. Prisca Pondorfer-Schäfer with the entire winning team from the Department of General ENT, Medical University of Graz.

Winner project 2020/2021 “Standardized electronic recording of complaints and quality of life of patients with head / neck cancer undergoing radiochemotherapy”

A standardized electronic recording of complaints and quality of life (QoL data) of patients with head / neck cancer while undergoing chemoradiotherapy using an app is a significant added value for both doctor and patient. For example, the reduction of documentation work allows more time for the doctor -Patient interactions. The complaints do not necessarily have to be verbalized, which brings great relief for head and neck patients who often have pain when speaking due to side effects from radiation and chemotherapy.

The prize money is to be used to further develop the app and to equip four ambulance waiting room spaces with tablets. This also guarantees IT support for the first two years. “We are overwhelmed and proud that our project has won among so many innovative projects and we would like to thank everyone who supported and motivated us. We are pleased to be able to further improve the care of oncological ENT patients with this project, “says Dr. Prisca Pondorfer Shepherd.

“The MSD Join4Care Award is an important innovation prize because it enables the implementation of patient-oriented projects and thus creates new perspectives for cancer patients,” said jury member OA Dr. Maximilian Hochmair, Head of the Oncological Day Outpatient Clinic and Day Clinic of Pneumology at the North Hospital – Floridsdorf Clinic with the winners.

“This year, too, many innovative projects were submitted for the MSD Join4Care Award. That makes it difficult to select a winner among works of equal rank, but it also shows the potential of patient-oriented projects in Austria, “affirmed Prim. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Eisterer, Head of the Oncological Center at Klagenfurt Clinic.

“This year’s motto for the Join4Care Award was“ Patient in focus ”. And that is exactly what the patient is in our winning project. A standardized electronic recording of complaints and quality of life is carried out here for patients with ENT cancer who are undergoing radiochemotherapy.

Especially with this group of patients, who often have limited vocal communication possibilities due to the tumor localization, this leads to an early detection of changes as well as to a better assessment of the course of treatment ”, summarized Prim. Priv. Doz. Birgit Grünberger, Head of the Department of Internal Medicine, Hematology and Internal Oncology, State Hospital Wiener Neustadt.

AT-NON-01500, Created October 2023