Table 1 Quotes from oncology providers

b. Study is inclusive in nature

1.1b “The recruitment methods I think are inclusive for basically capturing any patient that may be interested in the study because this is also through nurse practitioner and so I think the – I think it's inclusive of all patients who – no matter what they've gone through in terms of treatment: -

Participant 5, medical oncologist, tertiary cancer centre

c. Simplicity of the methods

1.1c “And I guess what appeals to me is that you seem to have a simplified recruitment process so that it won't take a lot of our time”. Participant 6, med onco, regional

1.2c “I mean yeah, I mean the fact that we can email you guys the contact information, you'll take care of the rest, that's just – it's great.” Participant P8, medical oncologist, tertiary cancer centre

2. Barriers

Health system barriers

a. Coordination between discharging clinicians

2.1 a “Having an awareness of – for example between clinical and nursing and us, when they are booking their discharge, they could put the sheet on there”. Participant 5, medical oncologist, tertiary cancer centre

2.2a “The offer needs to be made in the clinic by myself and the nurse that's working with me in the follow-up clinic.”Participant4, Radiation oncologist, tertiary cancer centre

2.3 a “It'll be easy for the ones that don't get radiation or don't need radiation, they just see us and if they come back in like three months or two months to make sure you're doing okay on the hormonal therapy and then I discharge them, those will be straightforward” Participant 2, medical oncologist, regional cancer centre

2.4a “Whoever is the last to see or treat, so it often falls on the radiation – patients undergoing radiation, it will often fall to the radiation oncologist to discharge. Often it's just through the chart that, you know, I'll see my patients for the last time for me and I see that radiation oncology still has an appointment down the line so I could certainly in my last note on the patient indicate that they'd be a good candidate and even write that in the chart.” Participant 6, medical oncologist, regional cancer centre

b. Time constraints for clinicians

2.1b “So, for me, it's – for the time sometimes, it's just in some cases, because I am the sole oncologist here in these areas. So, it's just sometimes I get too busy and might not have always the time to discuss that.” Participant 7, medical oncologist, regional cancer centre

2.2b You can prepare as best you can but if you have a very busy clinic talking about trials, interventions, studies does take more time and it can fall into the backseat if you will”. Participant 12, medical oncologist, tertiary cancer centre

Patient related barriers

2.1 c “And that's the only thing is that lots of my patients may be able to speak English but they may not be written-language literate so for them they may find some barrier to understanding the information that they would be given but they are obviously not going to be eligible” Participant 7, medical oncologist, regional cancer centre

2.2c “They might work for some but like most of them like mails rather than email. The only issue like the response rates, I am not sure about the response rate.” Participant 2, medical oncologist, regional cancer centre

2.3c “You know obviously I will expect the uptake to be lower than those who receive phone call directly from the program; some of them are elderly patients, they may not remember this and/or the younger patients are getting on with their lives and going back to work” Participant 7, medical oncologist, regional cancer centre

Study related barriers

a. Referral materials

2.1 d “Honestly I think that's too wordy and I know that sounds so placating but people will probably not read it.: P1, nurse prac, tertiary cancer centre

2.2 d “when they are bored waiting for me often and they’ll read whatever is in the room and two, I can just point and they can take a picture. “Participant 1, nurse prac, tertiary cancer centre

3. suggestions for improvement

a. Combination of electronic and paper letter

3.1 a “And I agree, have it there and then if I want to print out seven copies and have it in my binder that helps me, well, off I go, right. You shouldn’t provide those, people can print them themselves if they need.” Participant 4, Rad onc, tertiary cancer centre

3.2 a “Our patient department is all in one very tiny but all in one area. So having a paper letter to give to patients I think in some ways is quite practical. There tends to be less use of shared drive access to forms here so if you were going to use that as a place to store something on the shared drive, that would have to be really well communicated” Participant 7, medical oncologist,regional cancer centre

b. support for clinicians

3.1 b “I think she would be on board for this because she does a lot of the survivorship here anyways. And I think would be the one that gets you a lot of patients” Participant 2, medical oncologist, regional cancer centre

3.2b “And I think even just a short letter for them with – even with just the eligibility criteria and then they could just remind us of it.” Participant 5, med onc, tertiary cancer centre

3.3 b “I've had many a times somebody sitting in clinic and they would identify the potential eligible patients and say doctor, when you're done can I approach the patient? Absolutely, that makes recruitment so much more effective and easier.” Participant 12, medical oncologist, tertiary cancer centre

1. Facilitators

a. Study is imperative and desperately needed

1.1a “Some of our patients don't have the family care doctors and there is a lot of anxiety that comes along with the breast cancer patients too. So it would be nice to kind of see if it [intervention] makes any kind of difference whether you give them a number to call versus a nurse calling, looking at the outcomes from that perspective as well too.”

Participant 2, medical oncologist, regional cancer centre

1.2a “Just giving them an opportunity to participate in the study which would perhaps change their perception of what happens at the end of care. I think it's really quite valuable because I hear and I see on their faces a great deal of fear of the unknown and comfort with what they have.”-

Participant 11, Nurse practitioner, tertiary cancer centre

1.3a “Well and ultimately the study itself, you know, it is certainly novel and interesting to understand what's the patient's perception in terms of follow-up care, so that the question that the study question is very relevant and very topical.”

Participant 12, medical oncologist, tertiary care centre

1.4a “What appeals, I don't know, the recruitment process seems to be relatively straightforward. I guess what appeals to me is we are really looking forward to – looks like finally we're going to be able to get some clinical trials going in the community centres and so we're all for research.”

Participant 6, medical oncologist, regional cancer centre