Livingstone Ann, Engel Lidia, White Victoria, De Silva Daswin, Bucholc Jessica, Murphy April, Cook Elaine, Mihalopoulos Cathrine, Orellana Liliana, Ratcliffe Julie, Spence Danielle, McCaffrey Nikki
Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin Health Economics, School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Geelong, VIC, Australia.
School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Health Economics Group, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.
Patient. 2025 Jun 7. doi: 10.1007/s40271-025-00746-6.
Telephone cancer information and support services (CISS) deliver essential evidence-based resources for people living with cancer. This research aimed to describe how attributes and levels were developed for a future discrete choice experiment to elicit preferences for operational characteristics of a CISS, focusing on Cancer Council Victoria's service.
Using a mixed-methods approach guided by the ISPOR checklist for conjoint analysis in healthcare, initial attributes were developed using an artificial intelligence framework to analyse CISS calls (January 2018-December 2021), focus groups with people with cancer and carers using the CISS (July-August 2022), and a systematic literature review of qualitative studies. A four-stage descriptive process guided attribute and level development. An expert panel of researchers (n = 10), a CISS staff member, a person with lived experience of cancer and a consumer-only panel (n = 7) met monthly to prioritise, refine and finalise attributes by consensus.
Call data analysis (people with cancer n = 7701; carers n = 5500), six focus groups (people with cancer n = 10; carers n = 11) and a systematic literature review of qualitative studies generated 14 candidate attributes. The expert panels selected seven final attributes, each with three levels: follow-up call, operating hours, additional technology, operator type, operator consistency, call length and service fee.
Transparent reporting of the discrete choice experiment design process is essential for credible interpretation. The four-stage approach enhanced the comprehensibility of the experiment, as multi-modal data ensured the selected attributes and levels accurately reflect CISS caller priorities, which may be applicable to other choice-based studies.
电话癌症信息与支持服务（CISS）为癌症患者提供重要的循证资源。本研究旨在描述如何为未来的离散选择实验开发属性和水平，以引出对CISS运营特征的偏好，重点关注维多利亚癌症理事会的服务。
采用以ISPOR医疗保健联合分析清单为指导的混合方法，使用人工智能框架分析CISS通话（2018年1月至2021年12月）、与使用CISS的癌症患者和护理人员进行焦点小组讨论（2022年7月至8月）以及对定性研究进行系统文献综述，来开发初始属性。一个四阶段的描述过程指导属性和水平的开发。由10名研究人员、一名CISS工作人员、一名有癌症亲身经历的人和一个仅由消费者组成的小组（7人）组成的专家小组每月开会，通过共识对属性进行优先排序、完善和最终确定。
通话数据分析（癌症患者7701人；护理人员5500人）、六个焦点小组（癌症患者10人；护理人员11人）以及对定性研究的系统文献综述产生了14个候选属性。专家小组选择了七个最终属性，每个属性有三个水平：随访电话、营业时间、额外技术、接线员类型、接线员一致性、通话时长和服务费。
对离散选择实验设计过程进行透明报告对于可信的解释至关重要。四阶段方法提高了实验的可理解性，因为多模态数据确保所选属性和水平准确反映CISS来电者的优先事项，这可能适用于其他基于选择的研究。
