In Austria, a national cancer framework programme was introduced in 2014. Among other things, the goal of "high-quality data" is formulated in this programme. An important element of such data can be provided by health care research. For this reason, the LBI-HTA has launched a health care research project in oncology. The analyses in the report, part I, focuses on the topic of "End-of- Life" care.

Routine data from Austrian social health insurance funds for the years 2012 to 2016 were used as a data basis. The analyses were source-related and based on the place of residence of the patients identified by cancer diagnoses documented during their inpatient stays. In the period under review, 283,228 persons with cancer diagnoses were admitted to a publicly financed hospital. Of these, about 29% persons died. The proportion of patients who died in the inpatient sector was homogeneous across Austria (~61%) with the exception of Vienna. About 13% of deceased patients were admitted to the hospital within two days before their death. Considering an extended time period of 30 days about 69% of patients were hospitalised before their death. In both time-periods, the results in the federal states were homogeneous. With regard to special (systemic) oncological treatments (radiotherapy, chemotherapy and monoclonal antibodies) within 30 days before death, only small variabilities could be observed across the Austrian federal states.

The main limitations of the analysis were the lack of data from the ambulatory and outpatient sector as well as the missing information on the causes of death. This must be especially taken into account regarding the comparisons of the Austrian federal states, since there are regional differences in the shift from the inpatient to the outpatient sector across federal states. In addition, in some regions there are arrangements in place between health insurances and hospitals (corporations) regarding the reimbursement of cancer therapies.

The currently available databases are not sufficient to achieve goal five ("high-quality data") of the national cancer framework programme. An improvement with broader access for research institutions to intensify health services research should be a goal in the future.