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, impact on quality of life). 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 (e.g., from the Netherlands Cancer Registry and PROMS data) in order to estimate personalized information about treatment options, and (2) investigating how to communicate such individualized treatment information to cancer patients, with the aim of facilitating shared decision-making about treatment. 

Expertise

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

Courses

• Research Seminar Premasters CIS

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. Individual risk prediction of urinary incontinence after prostatectom…

   Tillier, C., Vromans, R., Boekhout, A., Veerman, H., Wollersheim, B., van Muilekom, H., Boellaard, T., van Leeuwen, P., van de Poll-Franse , L., & van der Poel, H. (2021). Individual risk prediction of urinary incontinence after prostatectomy and impact on treatment choice in patients with localized prostate cancer. Neurourology and Urodynamics, 1-9. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/nau.24703

2. Communication in decision aids for stage I-III colorectal cancer: A s…

   Hommes, S., Vromans, R., Clouth, F., Verbeek, X., de Hingh, I. H. J. T., & Krahmer, E. (2021). Communication in decision aids for stage I-III colorectal cancer: A systematic review. BMJ Open.

3. 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].

4. 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.

5. 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.