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

• Statistics for Bachelor CIS
• 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. The influence of personalization and message format on the interpreta…

   Vromans, R., Pauws, S., Bol, N., van de Poll-Franse, L. V., & Krahmer, E. (2020). The influence of personalization and message format on the interpretation of treatment side effect risks: An experimental study among cancer patients. Abstract from Etmaal van de Communicatiewetenschap, Amsterdam, Netherlands.

2. 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.

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., ... 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. Data-driven shared decision-making on cancer treatment

   Vromans, R., Hommes, S., Clouth, F., Pauws, S., Vermunt, J., Geleijnse, G., ... Krahmer, E. (2019). Data-driven shared decision-making on cancer treatment. Poster session presented at ICT.OPEN 2019, Hilversum, Netherlands.