What We Offer

The Duke Cancer Patient Experience Research Program conducts numerous studies utilizing a variety of research methods. Our research spans not only retrospective, prospective, and cross-over designs, but we also work with partners in developing and performing studies within the quality initiative and quality improvement space.

Retrospective Research Expertise
Our highly-skilled research team can use resources like electronic data sources and merge with manually abstracted data to perform intricated data mining for retrospective studies. We develop methods to input manually abstracted chart data into explicitly structured data elements within a set of standardized case report forms that we design for each unique research project. The structured data elements are then actively managed within the REDCap® data environment, ensuring data provenance and completeness. To ensure data integrity and accuracy, our team also performs  quality assurance and quality control checks throughout the study process. This honed method allows us to ensure the accuracy and completeness of data collected, analyzed, and reported.

Access to Robust Data
In addition to the wealth of experience our team offers, we are also fortunate to possess access to the Duke Cancer Registry; one of the most robust cancer registries in the United States. From this registry, we are able to utilize deidentified data for retrospective studies.

Our group also has access to patient distress data collected since 2015. This data resides within the Duke electronic medical record and is collected at each patient clinic visit to the Duke Cancer Center utilizing the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Distress Thermometer (NCCN DT). This rich data set comprised of patient reported outcomes allows us explore questions as part of our retrospective studies.