Short summary

The project aims to describe regional variation in quality of care, over time, measured in implementation of pack-procedures for lung-cancer from the following questions:

• To what extent do patients, who are referred to pack-procedure for lung-cancer, receive the services, the pack-procedures describe, within the determined deadlines?
• Given the existence of systematic regional variation in the implementation of pack-procedures, what can be the potentially explaining variable?

Rationale

In the late 1990s international studies placed Denmark low in relation to the survival of several cancers compared with otherwise comparable countries. This resulted in increased political focus and has since resulted in, among other things, three national cancer plans. As follow-up on cancer plan II, pack-procedures were introduced to the majority of cancer diagnoses. The primary purpose of the overall effort has been:

• To ensure high professional and patient-perceived quality
• To increase the uniformity of national efforts
• To increase focus on cancer in general

Despite efforts towards standardizing and optimizing treatment and patient care in the cancer field, variation on various quality parameters can still be identified.

Data and biological material

The main method is register research, where data from Danish Lung Cancer Registry (DLCR), among others, is linked with data from national registers. In the absence of existing data, the data will be linked with other data collection methods.