Self-perceived Cancer Rehabilitation Needs by Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinicians in Latin-america and the Caribbean

Research Objectives: To identify barriers, strengths, knowledge, educational needs and opportunities for clinicians to deliver rehabilitation care to cancer survivors in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Design: A 23-question survey of clinicians in Latin American and the Caribbean addressing demographics, education, work details, resources, general PM&R knowledge, and interest in cancer rehabilitation.

Setting: The survey was distributed electronically via “Survey Monkey” in June 2024 to rehabilitation clinicians actively practicing in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Participants: Invitations to participate in the survey were sent to rehabilitation medicine healthcare providers.

Interventions: Interventions: Not applicable

Main Outcome Measures: The intent of this study was to determine the self-perceived barriers to deliver cancer rehabilitation care, level of knowledge and interest in oncologic rehabilitation education among clinicians in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Results: 113 responses were received. 78.3% of the respondents identified as female, 42. 8% were between the ages of 31 and 40-years, 70.8% reported to be living in Mexico, 66.9% were PM&R residents or specialists, and 15% were physical therapists.
Providers working in a community hospital accounted for 57% of respondents, while 26.7% worked in a private rehabilitation center. 57.6% reported treating primarily musculoskeletal injuries and 17.7% treated cancer survivors daily, with fatigue, chronic pain, neuropathic and shoulder pain being the most reported pathologies.
Most participants reported no knowledge of speech and language pathology, trismus and cervical dystonia. 85.8% of respondents expressed a desire to learn about breast cancer rehabilitation, followed by lymphedema and pain management.
Adequate access to physical therapy equipment was reported by 62% of providers and 72% believed patients had easy access to physiatrists. Lack of access to speech and language pathologists or lymphedema therapists was reported by 25% and 20%, respectively.
25% reported their patients have no access to a PET scan, 14% declared no access to immunotherapy as cancer treatment modality. 36.9% believed the quality of cancer rehabilitation treatment in their region was extremely poor.
Many of the respondents believed areas of opportunity to improve cancer rehabilitation in their city were related to lack of knowledge, education and support throughout the medical community.

Conclusions: This study highlights that in Latin America and the Caribbean, lack of education and awareness of cancer related impairments and cancer rehabilitation resources are major barriers.

Author(s) Disclosures: No disclosures.