Study Buddy (an ECA Oncology Trial Advisor) for Cancer Trials

Overview

The Study Buddy ECA acts as an advisor to patients on chemotherapy regimens, promoting protocol adherence and retention, providing anticipatory guidance and answering questions, serving as a conduit to capture information about complaints or adverse events, providing a venue for communicating about updates. The Study Buddy will use the web-based ECA infrastructure developed for use on another project. We will use web browsers on tablets provided to study participants to access the Study Buddy, providing anywhere, anytime access to its functions. Usability metrics will include session time, satisfaction, and error rates.

Subjects will be identified from among patients on chemotherapy regimens at BMC. With the provider's approval, we will recruit patients for this study. All subjects will be enrolled for 2 months. After consent, we will collect baseline data. Baseline data is collected after enrollment and before randomization. Baseline data includes: sociodemographic data PROMIS Mental and Social health the PHQ-9 clinical factors such as medical diagnosis (cancer type and stage) the Short Assessment of Health Literacy-English the Short Portable Mental Status Questionnaire (SPMSQ) for cognitive impairment the Need For Cognition scale contact numbers of two friends or family members who will assist us in establishing contact, if necessary. The exit interview will be conducted 2 months after the baseline interview, with windows of 2 weeks plus or minus that date. Study staff will attempt to coincide this interview with a clinical visit, to minimize inconvenience for the subject. Data collected at the exit interview will include: PROMIS Mental and Social health the PHQ-9 Satisfaction with ECA Review of the subject's medical chart will be performed bi-weekly while the subject is enrolled. Chart review will be performed by a staff member who is blinded to the subject's group (intervention vs control).