Ruben Vromans MA

Bio

Treatment decision-making in cancer care requires that both patient and clinician are well-informed about the clinical case and personal situation at hand. To support this process, patients can make use of decision aids, but, unfortunately, such tools tend to be generic and lack personalized explanations about treatment options and associated statistics (e.g., life expectancy, or risks of side effects). Moreover, such cancer statistics are difficult to understand for patients and are not always communicated in a patient-friendly way. 

In this project, we are trying to tackle these issues by (1) analyzing the data of millions of Dutch cancer patients (from the Netherlands Cancer Registry and PROFILES registry) in order to estimate personalized information about treatment options, and (2) investigating how to communicate such personalized treatment information to cancer patients, with the aim of facilitating shared decision-making between patient and clinician. 

Expertise

• Risk communication
• Personalization
• Decision aids
• Shared decision-making
• Cancer

Courses

• Research Skills: Online Data Collection

Collaboration

The project is a collaboration between the Department of Communication and Cognition (TSHD) and The Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organization (IKNL), and funded by the TiU IMPACT Program.

Top publications

1. Communicating tailored risk information of cancer treatment side effe…

   Vromans, R., Pauws, S., Bol, N., van de Poll-Franse, L. V., & Krahmer, E. (2020). Communicating tailored risk information of cancer treatment side effects: Only words or also numbers? BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, 20(1), 277. [277].

2. Changes in internet use and wishes of cancer survivors - A comparison…

   van Eenbergen, M. C. H. J., Vromans, R. D., Boll, D., Kil, P. J. M., Vos, C. M., Krahmer, E. J., Mols, F., & van de Poll-Franse, L. V. (2020). Changes in internet use and wishes of cancer survivors: A comparison between 2005 and 2017. Cancer, 126(2), 408-415.

3. Assessing the quality and communicative aspects of patient decision a…

   Vromans, R., Tenfelde, K., Pauws, S., van Eenbergen, M., Mares-Engelberts, I., Velikova, G., van de Poll-Franse, L. V., & Krahmer, E. (2019). Assessing the quality and communicative aspects of patient decision aids for early-stage breast cancer treatment: a systematic review. Breast Cancer Research and Treatment, 178(1), 1-15.

4. Communicative aspects of decision aids for localized prostate cancer …

   Vromans, R., van Eenbergen, M., Pauws, S., Geleijnse, G., van der Poel, H., van de Poll-Franse, L. V., & Krahmer, E. (2019). Communicative aspects of decision aids for localized prostate cancer treatment - A systematic review. Urologic Oncology: Seminars and Original Investigations, 37(7), 409-429.

5. Need for numbers - A survey into the needs of cancer survivors for pe…

   Vromans, R., Hommes, S., Clouth, F., Lo-Fo-Wong, D., Pauws, S., Verbeek, X., van de Poll-Franse, L. V., & Krahmer, E. (2020). Need for numbers: A survey into the needs of cancer survivors for personalized and generic statistics. Abstract from 42nd Annual Meeting of the Society for Medical Decision Making, Chicago, United States.