Exploring New Technologies to Manage Cancer Pain in the Community

Inclusion Criteria:

* Patients

  * Adults, 18 years of age or over.
  * Established diagnosis of any cancer type.
  * Have experienced pain related to cancer or its treatment requiring any form of analgesic within the last three months.
  * Patients with all stages and grades of cancer who feel that they are willing and able to participate in an interview.

Caregivers • Caregivers aged 18 years of age or over who are or have been involved in providing care or assistance for somebody who has experienced cancer pain. Examples of caregivers might include family members, spouse, and close friends, who provide care and assistance to patients with cancer pain.

Professionals

• Registered doctors, nurses, and pharmacists who provide care for people with cancer pain.

Exclusion Criteria:

* • Non- English language speakers. Qualitative investigations will be reliant on communication in English. Specific words and phrases will be analysed by English speaking researchers in order to identify thematic content. This study does not include resources for interpreting services.

  * Patients who are thought to have entered the terminal stages of their illness will be excluded. This will be judged at recruitment by the screening clinician from the patient's general practice. In the case that a recruited patient has become too ill to participate in the research or has died before participation, and a linked caregiver has expressed interest in the study, the caregiver will be contacted, offered sympathies, and will be given the opportunity to withdraw from the study or continue as planned. All conversations about the study will be conducted in a supportive manner that recognises the sensitivity of the subject matter.
  * Patients who are registered at Great Western Medical Practice, Aberdeen (Rosalind Adam, researcher and interviewer practices as a doctor there).
  * Any participant who declines to take part.