MedPath

Learning Collaborative Versus Technical Assistance in Delivering a Palliative Care Program to Patients With Advanced Cancer and Their Caregivers

Not Applicable
Active, not recruiting
Conditions
Advanced Malignant Solid Neoplasm
Metastatic Malignant Solid Neoplasm
Recurrent Malignant Solid Neoplasm
Interventions
Behavioral: Technical Assistance
Behavioral: Virtual Learning Collaborative
Registration Number
NCT04062552
Lead Sponsor
University of Rochester NCORP Research Base
Brief Summary

This trial studies the delivery of the ENABLE palliative care program by two different methods called a Virtual Learning Collaborative or Technical Assistance for patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers. Palliative care is specialized medical care for people with a serious illness that occurs at the same time as other medical treatment. The purpose of palliative care is to provide relief from symptoms and stress of serious illness, to help patients and their families clarify goals of care, and to focus on social support and spiritual well-being. The focus of the ENABLE palliative care program is on living well, managing stress, patient communication of their personal values and hopes for care, social support, and symptom management. This study may help doctors find the best ways to include palliative care services into their practices and the impact of palliative care on cancer patients and their caregivers' quality of life.

Detailed Description

PRIMARY OBJECTIVE:

I. Gather preliminary data on the effectiveness of virtual learning collaborative (VLC) versus (vs.) technical assistance (TA) on educate, nurture, advise before life ends (ENABLE) program uptake, defined as the proportion of patients that complete a palliative care assessment and at least 4 ENABLE sessions.

SECONDARY OBJECTIVE:

I. Evaluate the preliminary effectiveness of VLC or TA on patient quality of life (QOL) and mood outcomes.

II. Evaluate the relationship between ENABLE program uptake and patients' QOL and mood across the two strategies.

EXPLORATORY OBJECTIVES:

I. Evaluate the effectiveness of VLC vs. TA on participating institutions' overall ENABLE program implementation, as measured by the General Organizational Index (GOI).

II. Evaluate the relationship between overall ENABLE program implementation and patients' QOL and mood across the two strategies.

OUTLINE: Health care practice sites are randomized to 1 of 2 groups.

GROUP I: Patients undergo a palliative care assessment, participate in 6 ENABLE phone-based sessions with an ENABLE coach over 20-40 minutes, and monthly follow-up calls for 6 months. Caregivers participate in 3 ENABLE sessions with an ENABLE coach and monthly follow-up calls for 6 months. The practice sites participate in a Virtual Learning Collaborative (VLC) consisting of group-based learning sessions, coaching, and applied quality improvement data collection, analysis and feedback opportunities monthly for 15 months.

GROUP II: Patients undergo a palliative care assessment, participate in 6 ENABLE phone-based sessions with an ENABLE coach over 20-40 minutes, and monthly follow-up calls for 6 months. Caregivers participate in 3 ENABLE sessions with an ENABLE coach and monthly follow-up calls for 6 months. The practice sites undergo practice-based consultation calls with an ENABLE/Technical Assistance (TA) expert monthly for 15 months.

After completion of the study, participants are followed up at 12 and 24 weeks.

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
208
Inclusion Criteria
  • PRACTICE SITE: All participating practice clusters will be asked to identify one (or more) ENABLE coach as part of study eligibility to deliver the ENABLE program.

  • PRACTICE SITE: Commitment of the ENABLE coach(es) to be trained to conduct the palliative care assessment (and ENABLE sessions if the practice plans to implement them).

  • PRACTICE SITE: Desire to implement ENABLE, including presence of an investigator (e.g., primary affiliate principal investigator [PI], oncology physician, Cancer Care Delivery Research [CCDR] Lead) and/or program administrator/supervisor who are willing to be key contacts.

  • PRACTICE SITE: Demonstrated support/buy-in from oncology physicians who are willing to enroll patients.

  • PRACTICE SITE: Agreement of practice leadership and other individuals at the practice cluster to support/participate in the study activities.

  • PRACTICE SITE: If necessary, willingness to participate in a phone interview to determine capacity to implement the ENABLE program.

  • INDIVIDUALS AT THE PARTICIPATING PRACTICE: The ENABLE implementation team at each participating practice will include at minimum one ENABLE coach and a coordinator. Other members of the team can include the primary affiliate PI, an oncology physician or investigator, CCDR lead (if different than the coordinator, and/or the program administrator/supervisor) and other professional individuals.

  • ONCOLOGY PHYSICIAN: Eligible providers at practices sites are oncology physicians (i.e., medical oncologists or radiation oncologists including trainees) caring for oncology patients. If no oncology physicians are available at the practice, other providers (e.g., advanced practice providers [APPs]) may take on the responsibilities of the oncology physician as laid out in this protocol. We do not require that all physicians at a practice setting agree to participate. Oncology physicians must work at a participating practice cluster with no plans to leave that practice site or retire at the time of enrollment into the study. Physicians (oncologists) may serve in the ENABLE coach role and perform the palliative care assessment, ENABLE sessions and/or monthly follow-up calls per practice discretion if they have completed appropriate training.

  • ENABLE COACH: All participating practice clusters will be required to identify one (or more) ENABLE coaches as part of study eligibility to deliver the ENABLE program. The ENABLE coach is responsible for ensuring the ENABLE sessions and follow-up calls are completed per protocol specifications.

  • ENABLE COACH: A registered nurse or advanced practice provider (including a nurse practitioner or physician assistant), a physician (e.g., medical and radiation oncologists, including oncology trainees), or other professionals (e.g., social workers, chaplains) with appropriate credentials and experience to deliver ENABLE

  • ENABLE COACH: Individuals with an appropriate clinical license (i.e., a registered nurse, advanced practice provider, or physician, as defined above) may perform the palliative care assessment and any ENABLE sessions and follow-up calls the practice chooses to deliver

  • ENABLE COACH: Other professionals (e.g., social workers, chaplains) may deliver ENABLE sessions and monthly follow-up calls for which their credentials and experience are appropriate

  • ENABLE COACH: ENABLE coaches complete appropriate study training for any content delivered.

  • PATIENTS: English-speaking as not all patient measures have been validated in other languages.

  • PATIENTS: Age >= 18

  • PATIENTS: Willing to complete palliative care assessment and ENABLE sessions.

  • PATIENTS: Diagnosed within the last 90 days with an advanced cancer (defined as a newly diagnosed stage III/IV, recurrence, or progressive solid tumor cancer). Patients can receive any cancer treatment for their advanced cancer while participating in this study.

    • The 90-day interval refers to when the patient was made aware of their diagnosis.
  • PATIENTS: Expected survival of at least 6 months.

  • PATIENTS: Have access to telephone that can receive incoming calls.

  • PATIENTS: Able to provide informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria
  • PATIENTS: Received previous palliative care services. (Concurrent palliative care is allowed.)

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
Technical AssistanceTechnical Assistance-
Virtual Learning CollaborativeVirtual Learning Collaborative-
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Patient completion of the Educate, Nurture, Advise, Before Life Ends (ENABLE) programUp to 24 weeks

Defined as having a palliative care assessment and completing at least 4 ENABLE sessions. A logit generalized estimating equation model with exchangeable correlation structure (to account for clustering within practice) will be fitted to a binary patient uptake indicator ("yes" if the patient completed a palliative care assessment and at least 4 ENABLE program sessions and "no" if the patient does not), with the group assignment as the main predictor. Model-predicted uptake proportions, odds ratios, relative risks, and confidence intervals for these measures will be used for interpretation. An additional analysis with sex, group assignment, and an interaction between the two as predictors will be conducted to examine whether this biological variable is a possible moderator of ENABLE program uptake.

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Preliminary effectiveness of VLC or TA on patient quality of life and mood outcomesAt 24 weeks

Will examine and quantify study group differences. A primary analysis, including all patients (either deceased or surviving by the scheduled 24-week follow-up) will be conducted using joint-modeling for longitudinal and time-to-event data to obtain inferences on the longitudinal outcome corrected for non-ignorable missing data due to death. In this approach, submodels for both the longitudinal process and the time-to-event process are estimated simultaneously, with a Cox model for the survival submodel, and a linear mixed-effects model for the longitudinal submodel. The two submodels share random effects for each individual, and these random effects account for both the association between the longitudinal outcome and the risk of death. A sensitivity analysis will also be performed.

Relationship between ENABLE program uptake and patient outcomesUp to 24 weeks

Will estimate the relationship between change in patient outcomes (quality of life and mood) using the number of ENABLE sessions completed (ENABLE program uptake) as the main predictor. The crude association between ENABLE sessions and change in patient outcomes will be examined graphically with profile plots, and with linear mixed models to determine whether the relationship is better fitted by a linear, a more complex trend, or as ordinal categorical data. Since the number of ENABLE sessions completed might be dependent on patient characteristics (e.g., sex, illness acuity, age), a covariate adjustment (via an adjusting score) will be conducted on the crude association estimate to determine the change in outcomes attributable to the number of ENABLE sessions completed, above and beyond patient characteristics. The adjusting score will be estimated with a random forest ensemble, based on patient characteristics.

Trial Locations

Locations (113)

Mercy Hospital Fort Smith

🇺🇸

Ft. Smith, Arkansas, United States

MedStar Washington Hospital Center

🇺🇸

Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Holy Cross Hospital

🇺🇸

Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States

Hawaii Cancer Care - Westridge

🇺🇸

Aiea, Hawaii, United States

Pali Momi Medical Center

🇺🇸

Aiea, Hawaii, United States

Queen's Cancer Center - Pearlridge

🇺🇸

Aiea, Hawaii, United States

The Cancer Center of Hawaii-Pali Momi

🇺🇸

Aiea, Hawaii, United States

Island Urology-Hilo

🇺🇸

Hilo, Hawaii, United States

Hawaii Cancer Care Inc - Waterfront Plaza

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Island Urology

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Queen's Cancer Cenrer - POB I

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Queen's Medical Center

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Straub Clinic and Hospital

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

University of Hawaii Cancer Center

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Hawaii Cancer Care Inc-Liliha

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Kuakini Medical Center

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Queen's Cancer Center - Kuakini

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

The Cancer Center of Hawaii-Liliha

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children

🇺🇸

Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Wilcox Memorial Hospital and Kauai Medical Clinic

🇺🇸

Lihue, Hawaii, United States

Saint Mary's Hospital

🇺🇸

Centralia, Illinois, United States

SSM Health Good Samaritan

🇺🇸

Mount Vernon, Illinois, United States

Mercy Medical Center - Des Moines

🇺🇸

Des Moines, Iowa, United States

Mercy Medical Center

🇺🇸

Springfield, Massachusetts, United States

Trinity Health Saint Joseph Mercy Hospital Ann Arbor

🇺🇸

Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States

Trinity Health IHA Medical Group Hematology Oncology - Brighton

🇺🇸

Brighton, Michigan, United States

Trinity Health Medical Center - Brighton

🇺🇸

Brighton, Michigan, United States

Trinity Health IHA Medical Group Hematology Oncology - Canton

🇺🇸

Canton, Michigan, United States

Trinity Health Medical Center - Canton

🇺🇸

Canton, Michigan, United States

Caro Cancer Center

🇺🇸

Caro, Michigan, United States

Chelsea Hospital

🇺🇸

Chelsea, Michigan, United States

Trinity Health IHA Medical Group Hematology Oncology - Chelsea Hospital

🇺🇸

Chelsea, Michigan, United States

Hematology Oncology Consultants-Clarkston

🇺🇸

Clarkston, Michigan, United States

Newland Medical Associates-Clarkston

🇺🇸

Clarkston, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford Health Saint John Hospital

🇺🇸

Detroit, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford River District Hospital

🇺🇸

East China, Michigan, United States

Cancer Hematology Centers - Flint

🇺🇸

Flint, Michigan, United States

Genesee Hematology Oncology PC

🇺🇸

Flint, Michigan, United States

Genesys Hurley Cancer Institute

🇺🇸

Flint, Michigan, United States

Hurley Medical Center

🇺🇸

Flint, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford Saint John Hospital - Academic

🇺🇸

Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford Saint John Hospital - Breast

🇺🇸

Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford Saint John Hospital - Van Elslander

🇺🇸

Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, United States

University of Michigan Health - Sparrow Lansing

🇺🇸

Lansing, Michigan, United States

Hope Cancer Clinic

🇺🇸

Livonia, Michigan, United States

Trinity Health Saint Mary Mercy Livonia Hospital

🇺🇸

Livonia, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford Saint John Hospital - Macomb Medical

🇺🇸

Macomb Township, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford Warren Hospital - Breast Macomb

🇺🇸

Macomb Township, Michigan, United States

Saint Mary's Oncology/Hematology Associates of Marlette

🇺🇸

Marlette, Michigan, United States

Hope Cancer Center

🇺🇸

Pontiac, Michigan, United States

Michigan Healthcare Professionals Pontiac

🇺🇸

Pontiac, Michigan, United States

Newland Medical Associates-Pontiac

🇺🇸

Pontiac, Michigan, United States

Trinity Health Saint Joseph Mercy Oakland Hospital

🇺🇸

Pontiac, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford Rochester Hospital

🇺🇸

Rochester Hills, Michigan, United States

MyMichigan Medical Center Saginaw

🇺🇸

Saginaw, Michigan, United States

Oncology Hematology Associates of Saginaw Valley PC

🇺🇸

Saginaw, Michigan, United States

Bhadresh Nayak MD PC-Sterling Heights

🇺🇸

Sterling Heights, Michigan, United States

MyMichigan Medical Center Tawas

🇺🇸

Tawas City, Michigan, United States

Advanced Breast Care Center PLLC

🇺🇸

Warren, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford Health Warren Hospital

🇺🇸

Warren, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford Madison Heights Hospital - Breast

🇺🇸

Warren, Michigan, United States

Henry Ford Warren Hospital - GLCMS

🇺🇸

Warren, Michigan, United States

Macomb Hematology Oncology PC

🇺🇸

Warren, Michigan, United States

Saint Mary's Oncology/Hematology Associates of West Branch

🇺🇸

West Branch, Michigan, United States

Huron Gastroenterology PC

🇺🇸

Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States

Trinity Health IHA Medical Group Hematology Oncology Ann Arbor Campus

🇺🇸

Ypsilanti, Michigan, United States

Mercy Clinic-Rolla-Cancer and Hematology

🇺🇸

Rolla, Missouri, United States

Mercy Hospital South

🇺🇸

Saint Louis, Missouri, United States

Mercy Hospital Saint Louis

🇺🇸

Saint Louis, Missouri, United States

Mercy Hospital Springfield

🇺🇸

Springfield, Missouri, United States

Northwell Health/Center for Advanced Medicine

🇺🇸

Lake Success, New York, United States

Strecker Cancer Center-Belpre

🇺🇸

Belpre, Ohio, United States

Adena Regional Medical Center

🇺🇸

Chillicothe, Ohio, United States

Mount Carmel East Hospital

🇺🇸

Columbus, Ohio, United States

Columbus Oncology and Hematology Associates Inc

🇺🇸

Columbus, Ohio, United States

Riverside Methodist Hospital

🇺🇸

Columbus, Ohio, United States

Grant Medical Center

🇺🇸

Columbus, Ohio, United States

The Mark H Zangmeister Center

🇺🇸

Columbus, Ohio, United States

Mount Carmel Health Center West

🇺🇸

Columbus, Ohio, United States

Doctors Hospital

🇺🇸

Columbus, Ohio, United States

Delaware Health Center-Grady Cancer Center

🇺🇸

Delaware, Ohio, United States

Grady Memorial Hospital

🇺🇸

Delaware, Ohio, United States

Dublin Methodist Hospital

🇺🇸

Dublin, Ohio, United States

Central Ohio Breast and Endocrine Surgery

🇺🇸

Gahanna, Ohio, United States

Mount Carmel Grove City Hospital

🇺🇸

Grove City, Ohio, United States

Fairfield Medical Center

🇺🇸

Lancaster, Ohio, United States

OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital

🇺🇸

Mansfield, Ohio, United States

Marietta Memorial Hospital

🇺🇸

Marietta, Ohio, United States

OhioHealth Marion General Hospital

🇺🇸

Marion, Ohio, United States

Knox Community Hospital

🇺🇸

Mount Vernon, Ohio, United States

Licking Memorial Hospital

🇺🇸

Newark, Ohio, United States

Newark Radiation Oncology

🇺🇸

Newark, Ohio, United States

Southern Ohio Medical Center

🇺🇸

Portsmouth, Ohio, United States

Saint Ann's Hospital

🇺🇸

Westerville, Ohio, United States

Genesis Healthcare System Cancer Care Center

🇺🇸

Zanesville, Ohio, United States

Lehigh Valley Hospital-Cedar Crest

🇺🇸

Allentown, Pennsylvania, United States

Lehigh Valley Hospital - Muhlenberg

🇺🇸

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States

Geisinger Medical Center

🇺🇸

Danville, Pennsylvania, United States

Pocono Medical Center

🇺🇸

East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, United States

Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton

🇺🇸

Hazleton, Pennsylvania, United States

Roper Hospital

🇺🇸

Charleston, South Carolina, United States

Bon Secours Saint Francis Hospital

🇺🇸

Charleston, South Carolina, United States

McLeod Regional Medical Center

🇺🇸

Florence, South Carolina, United States

Gibbs Cancer Center-Gaffney

🇺🇸

Gaffney, South Carolina, United States

Prisma Health Greenville Memorial Hospital

🇺🇸

Greenville, South Carolina, United States

Prisma Health Cancer Institute - Eastside

🇺🇸

Greenville, South Carolina, United States

Gibbs Cancer Center-Pelham

🇺🇸

Greer, South Carolina, United States

Spartanburg Medical Center

🇺🇸

Spartanburg, South Carolina, United States

SMC Center for Hematology Oncology Union

🇺🇸

Union, South Carolina, United States

ThedaCare Regional Cancer Center

🇺🇸

Appleton, Wisconsin, United States

ThedaCare Regional Medical Center - Neenah

🇺🇸

Neenah, Wisconsin, United States

ThedaCare Cancer Care - Shawano

🇺🇸

Shawano, Wisconsin, United States

Aspirus Regional Cancer Center

🇺🇸

Wausau, Wisconsin, United States

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