Medically reviewed by Dr. Brian Koffman
The Bottom Line:
CLL is a complicated and rapidly changing field. Healthcare professionals need help keeping up-to-date with current treatment recommendations and new therapies for CLL. Continuing medical education activities can help improve knowledge, competence, and confidence in caring for patients with CLL.
Who Performed the Research and Where Was it Presented:
Dr. Jeff Sharman from Willamette Valley Cancer Institute and Research Center and colleagues presented the results at the American Society for Hematology (ASH) Annual Meeting 2023.
Background:
The chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) treatment landscape has changed dramatically over the past decade with the introduction of targeted therapies. Several new treatments have been approved, and many investigational therapies are being tested in clinical trials. There is a lot of ongoing research in CLL, and it can be challenging for practicing clinicians to keep up with all the latest developments. Continuing medical education activities can help digest all that information into more bite-size chunks to help healthcare professionals (HCPs) keep up with the latest advances in CLL management.
Methods and Participants:
For this research, CLL experts partnered with Clinical Care Options. This company specializes in continuing education to create educational activities and tools for HCPs to improve their knowledge about the management of CLL. One of these tools was a survey tool, where participants were given different clinical scenarios with specific patient characteristics. They then had to develop a treatment plan and compare it with experts’ recommendations. Baseline polling questions also assessed their knowledge and confidence before completing the activity.
Results
- Between 2022 and 2023, 124 HCPs participated in educational activities.
- Only 40% of HCPs reported high confidence in their ability to plan optimal treatment strategies for CLL, meaning the majority of HCPs were not confident.
- Designing treatment plans became especially tricky when navigating specific molecular characteristics such as IGHV mutational status, TP53 mutations, or deletion 17p.
- HCP treatment selections were often not aligned with expert recommendations, highlighting a need to improve knowledge and competence.
- Most HCPs needed to be more confident in recognizing and managing side effects caused by BTK inhibitors, with only 26% reporting high confidence.
- Over time, HCPs have become more comfortable using a combination of venetoclax plus obinutuzumab.
Conclusion:
The CLL treatment landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade, and HCPs need help keeping up to date with current treatment recommendations and new therapies. Continuing medical education activities are an important way of improving the knowledge, competence, and confidence of HCPs so that they can better care for their patients.
Links and Resources:
Watch the interview on the abstract here:
You can read the ASH abstract here: Determining Clinical Practice Gaps for HCPs in Treating CLL Using CME-Based Surveys.
Take care of yourself first.
Ann Liu, PhD
