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Head and Neck NeoplasmCARINGNCT04267627

Telemedicine Nurse-Led Intervention for Rural Cancer Survivors

A study testing Comprehensive Assistance: Rural Interventions, Nursing, and Guidance (CARING) in people with Head and Neck Neoplasm and Survivorship, run by University of Virginia.

Unknown status

Status not confirmed. The sponsor has not verified this record for over two years, so it may be out of date.

Official record
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Trial summary

This study will evaluate the impact, cost-effectiveness, and patient perspectives of Comprehensive Assistance: Rural Intervention, Nursing, and Guidance (CARING), a nurse-led supportive care protocol delivered using telemedicine videoconferencing aimed at reducing unmet needs in a rural head and neck cancer… Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and older
Conditions the study is for
Head and Neck Neoplasm, Survivorship
What is being tested?
Comprehensive Assistance: Rural Interventions, Nursing, and Guidance (CARING)
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
450 participants
Where
No sites listed yet
Study dates
31 Dec 2020to 1 Jan 2026
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
None posted in the registry

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • Diagnosis of Head and Neck Cancer
  • Anticipated to be within 3 months of end of treatment
  • At least 18 years old

Who cannot join

  • -

Trial locations and contacts

No sites are listed yet.

Pamela DeGuzman, PhD contact

4344668327

pambakerdeguzman@gmail.com

Ivora Hinton, PhD contact

4349823291

idh2r@virginia.edu

About this study

Official title: A Nurse-Led Telemedicine Videoconferencing Intervention to Improve Access to Supportive Cancer Survivorship Care for Rural Virginians

This study will evaluate the impact, cost-effectiveness, and patient perspectives of Comprehensive Assistance: Rural Intervention, Nursing, and Guidance (CARING), a nurse-led supportive care protocol delivered using telemedicine videoconferencing aimed at reducing unmet needs in a rural head and neck cancer population. Specific aims: 1) Test the efficacy of CARING, delivered with and without telemedicine, compared to a control group. 2) Conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of a nurse-led telemedicine visit. 3) Evaluate patient perceptions of a telemedicine intervention. Design: We will use a three-arm randomized control design to determine the efficacy of CARING delivered face-to-face, vs. CARING over telemedicine, vs. usual care. Costs will be determine for incremental cost effectiveness analysis, with quality of life years as the effectiveness variable. Patient perceptions will be evaluated qualitatively using the Practical, Robust Implementation and Sustainability Model (PRISM), designed to evaluate translation of research into practice and quantitatively using the Telemedicine Satisfaction and Usefulness Questionnaire (TSUQ). Sample: We will enroll 450 head and neck cancer survivors of any stage who have completed treatment within the last 6 weeks (address over sampling of rural). Procedures: Following randomization, those in the intervention arm will either receive the nurse-led intervention in a clinic setting or over telemedicine videoconferencing 6 weeks following their in-person, end of treatment medical visit. Assessments at baseline, 6 weeks following the intervention, and 6 months following the intervention will document unmet needs using the Short Form Survivorship Unmet Needs (SF-SUNS) and quality of life using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapies- Head and Neck (FACT-HN) and the TSUQ and PRISM-guided questionnaires immediately following intervention. Health utilization costs at the societal and health system levels will be collected from the electronic medical record and patient interviews.

Read the detailed description

Once cancer treatment has concluded (a phase called "extended survivorship") some cancer survivors continue to experience physical and psychosocial morbidities, and short-term and late effects of treatment, all of which can impact survivors' mental health, quality of life, and occupational and social functioning. Continued deficits in post-treatment health and function are termed survivorship unmet needs. Survivors of head and neck cancer (HNC; defined as cancer of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, sinuses, nasal cavity, and salivary glands) suffer numerous and often life-altering unmet needs including lingering pain, altered speech and eating, and facial disfigurement. Few interventions exist to connect HNC survivors with resources to address physical and psychosocial sequelae, and accordingly HNC survivors have high unmet needs. Rural survivors are even less likely to have their post-treatment needs met. The University of Virginia (UVa) Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center (EC4) serves a largely rural catchment area where patients travel up to 6 hours to receive treatment. The EC4 offer a range of supportive care resources to assist HNC survivors during treatment, but once treatment is over, rural survivors are less likely to know of, let alone make use of these resources. Using resources of the well-established UVa Center for Telehealth (CFT) our intervention connects rural survivors with a nurse-led supportive care visit using telemedicine videoconferencing.

Preliminary data from Comprehensive Assistance: Rural Intervention, Nursing, and Guidance (CARING), a nurse-led, protocol-driven visit delivered over telemedicine videoconferencing suggests that supplementing medical follow-up with a face-to-face nursing visit over telemedicine works to overcome access barriers for rural survivors, and may reduce unmet needs, all without the need for the patient to travel to the EC4. Importantly, because of the extensive network and capabilities of the CFT we are able to offer the intervention either in patient's own home or through one of UVa's active telemedicine sites throughout the state. During the pilot intervention 35% (7/20) of participants were successfully referred to and connected with a supportive care provider. Pilot data suggests that a nurse-led proactive unmet needs intervention may overcome the stigma associated with asking for or accepting psychosocial help among rural residents, which can further complicate the provision of supportive care to this population.

Identifying the optimal approach to address rural survivors' unmet needs, we next need to determine if the nurse protocol or the telemedicine modality (or both) are driving intervention success. Health systems and policy makers considering adopting this model of care need understand to incremental costs and cost-effectiveness of providing a nurse-led protocol delivered via telemedicine. Rural and older populations may experience more difficulties adopting health technology; thus we need to determine patients' perspectives on the use and usefulness of the intervention.

Aim 1. Test the efficacy of CARING, delivered with and without telemedicine, compared to a control group. Hypothesis 1: HNC survivors who receive the CARING intervention will have a significantly larger reduction in unmet needs. Preliminary data revealed that HNC survivors of later cancer stage, longer distance to care, and receiving a home intervention, were more likely to accept a referral to address their unmet needs. We will determine the impact of those factors, as well as rurality, home broadband access, SES, race, ethnicity, and sex, on reduction in survivorship unmet needs. Hypothesis 2: Rural HNC survivors will be more likely to attend a home-based telemedicine intervention than an in-person visit. We will compare attendance rates of rural HNC survivors between those who receive a telemedicine home-based intervention and an in-person visit.

Aim 2. Conduct a cost-effectiveness analysis of a nurse-led telemedicine visit. We will calculate the ratio of incremental costs of delivering the intervention compared to the improvement in quality of life. Compare the relative costs of survivorship care delivered 1) with or without the CARING telemedicine intervention and 2) with or without the CARING intervention (without telemedicine) from both societal and health system perspectives. Analyze cost-effectiveness models for early and late stage cancers, and rural/non-rural survivors.

Aim 3. Evaluate patient perceptions of a telemedicine intervention. Hypothesis 3: Participants will report both the nurse interaction and minimizing travel as benefits of the intervention and technology use a barrier. Survey participants to determine intervention patient-centeredness, barriers, seamlessness of transition between program elements, access, and burden of participation in the intervention.

Being tested
Comprehensive Assistance: Rural Interventions, Nursing, and Guidance (CARING)
Keywords
Telemedicine, Cancer Survivorship, Rural Health Disparities
Medical subject headings
Head and Neck Neoplasms

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • Comprehensive Assistance: Rural Interventions, Nursing, and Guidance (CARING)Behavioural

    Cancer-related distress will be assessed using the NCCN Distress Thermometer amended to include HNC-specific areas of distress. For those participants experiencing high rates of distress, the nurse will provide targeted distress education. Education for participants exhibiting successful distress self-management, or with distress that has already resolved will focus on reinforcing surveillance and health promotion information contained in the Survivorship Care Plan. When indicated, the nurse will discuss potential referrals to support services with the patient, and they will decide jointly which referrals will be beneficial. Following the visits, the nurse will make agreed upon referrals using existing cancer center pathways, documenting these in the medical record. The nurse will follow-up with the patient via telephone 6 weeks following the telemedicine visit to determine uptake of the referral, documenting all referral information in the electronic medical record.

Study groups in NCT04267627
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
Usual CareNo interventionNo intervention.
CARING with telemedicineExperimentalPatients will receive the nurse-led supportive care intervention over telemedicine videoconferencing from home or from a satellite telemedicine site in Virginia.
Receives: Behavioral: Comprehensive Assistance: Rural Interventions, Nursing, and Guidance (CARING)
CARING face-to-faceExperimentalPatients will receive the nurse-led supportive care intervention in person.
Receives: Behavioral: Comprehensive Assistance: Rural Interventions, Nursing, and Guidance (CARING)

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Number and type of Unmet Needs

    Survivorship Unmet Needs Survey- Short Form. 30 question scale with 0-4 rating for each item. Overall scores range 0-120. Lower scores indicated fewer unmet needs.

    Measured: baseline

  2. Number and type of Unmet Needs

    Survivorship Unmet Needs Survey- Short Form. 30 question scale with 0-4 rating for each item. Overall scores range 0-120. Lower scores indicated fewer unmet needs.

    Measured: 6 weeks post intervention

  3. Number and type of Unmet Needs

    Survivorship Unmet Needs Survey- Short Form. 30 question scale with 0-4 rating for each item. Overall scores range 0-120. Lower scores indicated fewer unmet needs.

    Measured: 6 monthspost intervention

  4. Quality of Life rating

    Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapies- Head and Neck (FACT-HN). Quality of life scale with 4 sub-scales and 12 items each related specifically to head and neck cancer quality of life. The Physical Health scale has 7 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-28 with a lower score indicating better quality of life. The Social Well Being scale has 7 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-28 with a higher score indicating better quality of life. The Emotional Well Being scale has 6 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-24 with a lower score indicating better quality of life. The Functional scale has 7 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-28 with a higher score indicating better quality of life. The remaining 12 items are all scored as 0-4 each, range for each item 0-4 with higher or lower score indicating better quality life depending on each individual item.

    Measured: baseline

  5. Quality of Life rating

    Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapies- Head and Neck (FACT-HN). Quality of life scale with 4 sub-scales and 12 items each related specifically to head and neck cancer quality of life. The Physical Health scale has 7 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-28 with a lower score indicating better quality of life. The Social Well Being scale has 7 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-28 with a higher score indicating better quality of life. The Emotional Well Being scale has 6 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-24 with a lower score indicating better quality of life. The Functional scale has 7 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-28 with a higher score indicating better quality of life. The remaining 12 items are all scored as 0-4 each, range for each item 0-4 with higher or lower score indicating better quality life depending on each individual item.

    Measured: 6 weeks post intervention

  6. Quality of Life rating

    Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapies- Head and Neck (FACT-HN). Quality of life scale with 4 sub-scales and 12 items each related specifically to head and neck cancer quality of life. The Physical Health scale has 7 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-28 with a lower score indicating better quality of life. The Social Well Being scale has 7 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-28 with a higher score indicating better quality of life. The Emotional Well Being scale has 6 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-24 with a lower score indicating better quality of life. The Functional scale has 7 items, each rated 0-4. Scores range from 0-28 with a higher score indicating better quality of life. The remaining 12 items are all scored as 0-4 each, range for each item 0-4 with higher or lower score indicating better quality life depending on each individual item.

    Measured: 6 months post intervention

Secondary outcomes (1)
  1. telemedicine usefulness and satisfaction

    Telemedicine Satisfaction and Usefulness Questionnaire (TSUQ). The TSUQ has 2 domains and a total of 21 items, the Video Visits domain (11 items) and the Use and Impact domain (10 items) each measured on a scale 1-5. The range of scores for Video Visits domain is 11-55 with a higher score indicating more satisfaction with video visits, and the Use and for the Use and Impact domain is 10-50, with higher scores indicating more usefulness to impact health outcomes.

    Measured: within one week of intervention

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted13 Feb 2020
  2. Study start31 Dec 2020 (estimated)
  3. Primary completion1 Jan 2025 (estimated)
  4. Study completion1 Jan 2026 (estimated)

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Supportive care
Allocation
Randomised
Intervention model
Parallel groups
Model description
Three-arm trial evaluating CARING delivered over telemedicine vs. CARING delivered face-to-face vs. usual care
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
450 participants (estimated)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT04267627
Sponsor's protocol ID
20991
Acronym
CARING
Status last verified
Feb 2020
First submitted
5 Feb 2020
Last updated
17 Feb 2020
Results posted
No
Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing Comprehensive Assistance: Rural Interventions, Nursing, and Guidance (CARING) in people with Head and Neck Neoplasm and Survivorship, run by University of Virginia.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 3 inclusion and 1 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: status not confirmed, as of the sponsor's last update on 17 Feb 2020. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

Results are not available in the source record.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

Contact Pamela DeGuzman, PhD (4344668327, pambakerdeguzman@gmail.com), or a site near the patient. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Number and type of Unmet Needs (time frame: baseline). The study lists 6 primary outcomes in all. It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?
Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 17 Feb 2020.

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