PrOFILE Assessments
To assess the current situation of the participating hospitals, as well as identify strengths and opportunities at the national level, the abbreviated version of the St. Jude Pediatric Oncology Facility Integrated Local Evaluation (PrOFILE) self-assessment tool was implemented in seven hospitals where pediatric oncology services are offered in Kenya. These hospitals were identified by Gertrude Children’s Hospital and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and as estimated by GLOBOCAN 2018, have an average of number of 6,000 new patients per year. PrOFILE provides a snapshot of the pediatric hematology and oncology landscape and care continuum at both country and facility levels over the following 12 modules: national context, facility and local context, finances and resources, personnel, service capacity, service integration, diagnostics, chemotherapy, supportive care, surgery, radiation therapy and patients and outcomes. These modules are grouped into five specific components, including Context, Workforce, Diagnostics, Therapy, and Patients & Outcomes. One outcome of the tool is a comprehensive list of strengths and opportunities, as well as suggested collaborators and St. Jude support packages corresponding to each of them.
Foundational pre-work included an introductory online meeting with Kenyan NCI officials, Gertrude Children’s Hospital in Nairobi, an American twinning partner to University of Nairobi, and the St. Jude PrOFILE and Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Teams. During the meeting, St. Jude presented the PrOFILE tool, its methodology, and previous experiences using the tool. Within Kenya, this initiative was coordinated by representatives from Gertrude Children’s Hospital, NCI and WHO.