To better understand how lymphoedema is assessed and reported we wanted to unpack the breadth of outcomes and assessment tools used, and the terms used when describing lymphoedema.
**The ‘we’ in this sentence refers to the research team who guided me through my doctoral studies: Assoc. Professor Simon Poon (Information systems); Professor Tim Shaw (Translational medicine and digital health); Associate Professor Liz Dylke (PT / lymphoedema) and Professor Sharon Kilbreath (PT / lymphoedema), all of the University of Sydney. I felt very blessed to have this group of remarkable and diverse specialists on/by my side.
To fully investigate the breadth of clinician-reported outcomes in use we looked at how change is reported in the research, and how it is reported in the clinic. Step one was to look at the literature with a systematic review. I was genuinely shocked by the variance in how everything is measured and described. If you’d like to read more about this the reference is below:
Sierla, R., Dylke, E., Kilbreath, S. (2018). A Systematic Review of the Outcomes Used to Assess Upper Body Lymphedema. Cancer Investigation, 36(8), 458-473. https://doi.org/10.1080/07357907.2018.1517362