The adoption rate of the newly proposed pre-radiotherapy communication form in Chonburi Cancer Hospital network

With novel pre-radiotherapy (RT) technique for treating head and neck cancerin place also in Thailand, it seems plausible to extract fewer teeth prior to the RT. Theaims of this study were for 1) developing a more informative RT communication form;and 2) testing the adoption rate of this newly proposed form with dentists working inMinistry of Public Heath Hospitals in Chonburi, Rayong and Chacheongsao Provinceswho are responsible for providing pre-radiation dental care. The communication formwas created firstly by the researcher based on a combination of current referral formused by Chonburi Cancer Hospital and evidence from a literature review. Then, fiveexperts (1 radiation oncologist, 2 ear-nose-throat surgeons and 2 dentists) working inChonburi Cancer Hospital finalized the communication form. Next, we sent an onlinequestionnaire survey to 81 dentists working in 32 hospitals under the administration ofthe Ministry of Public Health in Chonburi, Rayong and Chacheongsao. The responserate of individual dentist was 60.5% (49 of 81 participants) and the response rate ofhospitals contacted was 84.4% (27 of 32 hospitals). The questionnaire included 5-LikertScales questions about Pre-RT dental treatment plans: one guided by the current andanother by the newly proposed form; and the adoption questions based on Roger’s“model of innovation decision process”. We found that the newly proposed Pre-RTCommunication Form received a high adoption rate (4.14±0.53 out of 5). Interestingly,even with details of RT dose, new RT technique with specific anatomical locationaffected in the newly proposed form; we found that dentists still expressed concernabout post-RT osteoradionecrosis (ORN). We speculate that part of this happened since32 research participants (65%) did not know the exactly amount of radiation dose thatwould increase the ORN risk.