National Guidelines on Different Cancer Diagnosis, Palliative Care, Rehabilitation and on Rehabilitation and After Care Including Follow-up for Child Cancer

Key Contextual Factors

• There are over 45 guidelines published in Sweden with the majority diagnosis-specific covering the entire cancer pathway.  A smaller number of the guidelines are general such as rehabilitation and palliative care.
• The association of regional cancer centres are responsible for the production of the guidelines while the county councils are responsible for their implementation.
• The primary target group is health care professionals but there is also focus on health care executives and patients and their families. 

Key Components/Steps

• Engaging multi-professional groups from different county councils
• Making draft guidelines, produced by the collaboration of regional cancer centres, available to clinical experts through a central website and open for discussion on medical content to inform revision of national guidelines
• Making draft guidelines available to all county councils through a central website and open for discussion on organisational and economic consequences to inform revision of national guidelines
• Publishing final version of national guidelines on publicly accessible website
• Regional implementation of guidelines

Main Impacts / Added Value

• The national guidelines contribute to evidence-based, equitable and quality healthcare for all patients, regardless of where they live, their gender or their socioeconomic status.

Lessons Learned

• Key success factors included ensuring professional involvement from all areas of the cancer care process and from all county councils.
• It was important for the program to be patient-centred, covering all aspects of cancer care
• It was critical to establish infrastructure for implementation through the regional cancer centres
• Open access of the guidelines on website: cancercentrum.se

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