Project: „Relevant off-label-uses in palliative medicine: comparison of the best available evidence with the clinical routine”
Off-Label-Use of medication is an integral part of everyday palliative care. Nevertheless, practices vary greatly. Therefore we would like to welcome you to the survey of our project: "Relevant off-label-uses in palliative care: comparison of the best available evidence with the clinical routine". The survey will be conducted in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
The survey is aimed at physicians in general or specialized palliative care and pharmacists who are regularly involved in the treatment of palliative care patients in Switzerland.
The aim of the project is to identify discrepancies between the best available evidence of relevant off-label uses in palliative care and their clinical routine. With the help of this information, we would like to better understand these differences in order to develop strategies for the good and safe handling of off-label use in everyday care.
In the following questionnaire you will be asked to give your opinion on following topics:
You are asked to give expertise assessment on dosages, therapy monitoring parameters and important notes you may have. Additional to that we will present you evidence from the pall-OLU.de website and the S3 Guideline palliative care for patients with incurable cancer. You will be asked to compare your given answers with the evidence shown and if there are any discrepancies and why. Additionally after each drug you will have the opportunity to share your own experiences, notes or recommendations.
The evidence presented from pall-OLU.de and the S3 Guideline is reproduced literally but has been shortened due to the lenght and with regard to the relevant information concerning each off-label-use. The evidence presented has been translated by us from german into english for the purpose of this survey.
This survey contains six topics with the associated substances and routes of administration (s.c.= subcutaneously, i.v. = intravenously): hyoscine butylbromide s.c. or i.v. and glycopyrrolate s.c. or i.v. for brochial secretion, dexamethasone s.c. or i.v. and octreotide s.c. or i.v. for intestinal obstruction, haloperidol s.c. or i.v. and levomepromazine s.c. or i.v. for nausea, haloperidol s.c. or i.v. for hyper- or hypoactive delirium, levomepromazine s.c. or i.v. for agitation and midazolam s.c. and intranasally for anxiousness.
Attached to this you find the information regarding background and methods of the project.
As a thank you for their participation, participants who have fully completed and sent in the questionnaire will be entered into a prize draw to win one participation in the 19th Update on Drug Therapy and Symptom Control (Vertiefen - Vernetzen | Christophorus Akademie) and one copy of the book “Top Medikamente in der Palliativmedizin” by C. Rémi and C. Bausewein (2022) for each country surveyed (Germany, Austria and Switzerland).
You can take part in this survey until the 25.09.2025. The survey is completely anonymous. We will evaluate completely and incompletely filled in questionaries. Completing the whole questionnaire takes about 30 minutes.
We greatly appreciate your contribution to identifying possible information deficits in order to improve and enhance the pharmacological treatment of palliative patients.
In case of any inquiries please contact Isabelle Pichlmaier (Isabelle.Pichlmaier@med.uni-muenchen.de) or PD Dr. Constanze Rémi (Constanze.Remi@med.uni-muenchen.de).
