Meet the Leader from PMC!

In this interview, we meet Prof. Leontien Kremer from PMC.

Why did you join PanCareSurPass?

My main focus is on childhood cancer survivorship research and evidence-based pediatric oncology care. PanCareSurPass is an interesting project as it explores how to use the digital SurPass tool to improve care.

Explain your organization and your role in PanCareSurPass.

I am a Research Leader at the Prinses Maxima Centre (PMC) for pediatric oncology. PMC is a unique center that brings together all the highly complex care and research for children with cancer in the Netherlands. My group focuses on survivorship research and quality of care improvement.

In PanCareSurPass, I lead the pre-implementation study in WP1. The study includes an online survey and Open Space workshops to learn more about the barriers and facilitators for implementing the SurPass, from the perspective of survivors, healthcare providers, hospital managers and IT teams. WP1 also includes the development of care recommendtions for survivors who are less than 5 years from the end of treatment, for whom no guideline currently exists. This work was in collaboration with the International Late Effects of Childhood Cancer Guideline Harmonization Group (IGHG), of which I am a Co-Chair.

Why do you think PanCareSurPass is an important project?

PanCareSurPass offers an important opportunity to improve the availability of high quality, evidence-based survivorship care across Europe, where there is currently a lot of variability. Implementing the SurPass in different health systems is challenging! Our work exploring the barriers and facilitators will let us develop recommendations to ease this implementation.

What makes this project unique for you?

The diversity of the PanCareSurPass consortium! The group consists of people from many different countries and everyone has their own expertise.

What do you hope this project will achieve?

I hope that this project will bring us closer to our final goal – to realize optimal survivorship care for all survivors of childhood or adolescent cancer and to improve their quality of life.

What’s the biggest challenge for your organization in PanCareSurPass?

The biggest challenge is to help clinics find ways to overcome the barriers they face within their health systems, which are not always small when implementing digital health solutions.

What’s the most fun thing for you in PanCareSurPass?

To work with all the PanCareSurPass colleagues and to see the intrinsic motivation of all who are involved. This collaboration with researchers, care providers, IT teams and survivors is very inspiring.

Furthermore, we have created a project that is of huge benefit for survivors. The relevance is huge!

What’s the most important benefit of your participation in PanCareSurPass?

With this project, we can learn more about how to best implement the SurPass in different countries and learn more about how survivors and healthcare providers view the SurPass. Our aim is to improve survivorship care at a European level, which is an important task!