The Rehab 360 Clinic, a referral-based program, is working to ensure that cancer patients receive ongoing survivorship support in whatever forms that may take.
The Penn Medicine Rehab 360 Clinic opened in 2022 to help people who have completed their treatment for head and neck cancer—at Penn, as well as outside of the health system—receive ongoing survivorship support in whatever forms that may take.
The Head and Neck Surgery division recommends its patients schedule an appointment with the clinic within the first year of completing their cancer treatment, and then annually thereafter.
“It’s very important for head and neck cancer survivors, in particular, to follow up with someone who knows head and neck cancer really well,” says Allison Paisley, NP, a nurse practitioner in the Head and Neck Surgery division and a founder of the Rehab 360 Clinic.
“The side effects of treatment are vast, and they evolve over time,” she adds. “Even if someone has regular follow-ups with their head and neck surgeon, they should still see a survivorship provider on an annual basis because there are so many things that we can do, so many resources that we can help make available to them that they may not otherwise be aware of. I think of it as concierge medicine for survivorship.”
With Steven B. Cannady, MD, Director of the Head and Neck Cancer Service Line at Pennsylvania Hospital, and Rabie Shanti, DMD, MD, a former head and neck surgeon at the Center for Head and Neck Cancer at the Abramson Cancer Center, Paisley applied for a $ 250,000 Department of Otorhinolaryngology grant in 2021 to establish the Rehab 360 Clinic. Before that, she had been informally serving as a survivorship coordinator for the patients of Jason Newman, MD, FACS, the former Director of the Head and Neck Surgery division, since joining the division in 2013.
Paisley says she had a strong interest in oncology when she entered nursing. As her education and training progressed, her interests evolved toward what she describes as “the full circle of healing,” including symptom management, pain management, and mental health support.
Under Dr. Newman, she began building partnerships around Pennsylvania Hospital, where both were based, and connected Dr. Newman’s survivorship patients with cardiologists, psychiatrists, and Penn Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, which offers a rehabilitation program designed for cancer survivors.
Today, the clinic—with Dr. Cannady as its medical director—taps an even broader range of resources across the entire health system, including the Cardio-Oncology, Sleep Medicine, and Gastroenterology divisions, as well as a Penn Dental Medicine Clinic specifically for cancer patients that opened last January.
There’s also the Paula A. Seidman Psychosocial Counseling Program at the Abramson Cancer Center, which, according to the program’s overview, is staffed by psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers who can assist patients and families by providing support, coping techniques, and interventions that help patients regain a sense of well-being and address personal and relationship issues resulting from the cancer experience.
Within the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, speech and language pathologists are available to provide speech and swallowing therapy, and an esthetician to provide scar care. Paisley says patients also see other specialists within the department for long-term issues that stem from their head and neck cancer treatment.
The Clinic’s staff meet regularly with representatives from these various partners to stay abreast of any emerging trends in their survivorship care and opportunities to streamline it further.
Additionally, the Clinic helps its patients coordinate referrals and testing and schedule appointments. It also connects them to each other through its own peer support program.
More than 130 patients have been seen at the Rehab 360 Clinic, according to Paisley. Patients are referred to the clinic by their Penn Head and Neck surgeon, a Penn nurse navigator, or their local otolaryngologist.
Paisley says she plans to continue to grow the clinic’s outreach, both in terms of its resources and patients. She also wants to eventually contribute to the department’s research on the impacts of head and neck cancer survivorship, including making any appropriate clinical trials available to the clinic’s patients.
To learn more about the Rehab 360 Clinic, call 215-454-3139 or email Rehab360@pennmedicine.upenn.edu.