Introduction
Survival from pediatric cancers in low-middle-income countries (LMICs)
is much lower than higher income countries (HICs) due to late
presentation, delayed diagnosis, difficulty with accessing health care,
drug unavailability and treatment abandonment[1-13]. There is often
an extreme shortage of trained health care providers and the referral
pathway to a hospital equipped to care for children with cancer is
burdened by long wait times, travel time and distance and financial
barriers. Within Kenya, financial barriers, lack of standardized
treatment protocols and inconsistent family education about the planned
treatment, as well as concerns with treatment delays within the
hospitals have been shown to lead to abandonment of curative
therapy[14-19].
The Pediatric Oncology Facility Integrated Local Evaluation Tool
(PrOFILE) assessment was developed to identify the strengths and
weaknesses of individual institutions within a country, as well as the
pediatric oncology services on a national level. Following an extensive
needs assessment, workshops are conducted with key stakeholders to
identify actionable goals to be achieved over the next few years to
improve pediatric oncology care.
The PrOFILE tool provides comprehensive, modular and self-guided
institutional self-assessments. PrOFILE had already been conducted in 61
pediatric oncology units in 16 countries. Each institution and country
received score-based reports and then workshops were conducted either
in-person or completely virtual. Outcome based goals were then set by
each country to improve care within pre-determined time frames. Due to
timing around an improving, but still ongoing pandemic, the Kenyan
PrOFILE workshop was the first one conducted in a hybrid format.