Avoidable hospital visits for adults with cancer
Actionable categories of avoidable hospital care among adults with cancer
This work groups hospital and ER visits for adults with cancer into clear, practical categories to help providers reduce unnecessary trips and admissions.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Ut Southwestern Medical Center NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Dallas, United States) |
| Project ID | NIH-11163269 on NIH RePORTER |
What this research studies
If I have cancer, researchers will look at hospital and emergency department visits recorded for adults like me and examine the diagnosis codes and clinical details behind those visits. They will compare the commonly used OP-35 code list to real clinical scenarios and validate which visits truly could have been handled outside the hospital. From that review they will create actionable categories (for example: needs a non-emergency procedure, missed triage call) that explain why patients end up admitted. The goal is to give cancer care teams clearer, patient-focused reasons for avoidable hospital use so they can change care pathways.
Who could benefit from this research
Good fit: Adults living with cancer whose hospital or emergency visits appear in Medicare or hospital records are the primary group whose care patterns this work examines.
Not a fit: Patients without recorded hospital or ER visits, or those whose admissions are clearly unavoidable (for example, life-threatening bleeding or acute organ failure), are unlikely to see direct benefit from these classification results.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this could help reduce unnecessary ER visits and hospital admissions for people with cancer by giving clinicians clear targets for change.
How similar studies have performed: Related avoidable-care measures exist for general patient populations, but the OP-35 approach for cancer has not been clinically validated and this work is relatively novel in cancer care.
Where this research is happening
Dallas, United States
- Ut Southwestern Medical Center — Dallas, United States (Active)
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Hong, Arthur Seokjae — Ut Southwestern Medical Center
- Study coordinator: Hong, Arthur Seokjae
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page below.