Supportive Care Delivered by Telemedicine to Cancer Patients at Home

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center33 enrolled

Overview

This study will test whether supportive care follow-up delivered to cancer patients at home by telemedicine ("virtual" medical visits using telecommunications technologies) is as effective as in-person supportive care visits in the clinic.

The protocol was developed and initially implemented when the standard of care for Supportive Care (and oncology) follow-up at MSK was in-person visiting and home telemedicine was only in an early stage of use at the institution. During the COVID-19 crisis, all outpatient Supportive Care visits and most oncology visits at MSK have been handled via telemedicine to protect patient (and staff) safety.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

NONE

Enrollment

Conditions

Cancer Supportive Care

Interventions

In-person in clinic follow-up visitOTHER

Patient will be seen in-person (i.e. an IR/NV or AFX visit) in the clinic by a Supportive Care Specialist for at least 3 follow-up visits over 14 weeks. Any patients randomized to the in-person group who experience an extraordinary burden and/or are physically unable to attend their in-person visits will be able to be seen by their Supportive Care Service clinician via a home telemedicine visit (patients will return to their original group assignment if possible).

Telemedicine follow-up visitOTHER

i. Patients will be seen by video telemedicine at home by a Supportive Care Specialist for at least 3 follow-up visits over 14 weeks. ii. Patients will have access to a clickable link that will initiate a video telemedicine call to the clinician's office. The clinical team will be responsible for answering such calls and for ensuring the clinician and the patient connect and begin the actual visit.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 YearsHealthy volunteers:

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * age 18 years or older * solid tumor of any type * completed an initial in-person clinic visit (i.e. an IR/NV or AFX visit) at Rockefeller Outpatient Pavilion with Dr. Saldivar, Dr. Martin, Supportive Care physicians, or Andrea Dolan, a Supportive Care nurse practitioner * planned for Supportive Care Service follow-up visits, but none yet completed * enrolled on the MyMSK secure online patient portal and have access to the portal off site of MSK campuses * resident of New York or New Jersey or Connecticut (clinicians may not be licensed in other states, as would be required for televisits to patients there) Exclusion Criteria: * Patients and informal caregivers who cannot communicate with clinicians/respond to instruments in English without the use of an interpreter

Locations (1)

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

New York, New York, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Health-Related Quality of Life: FACT-G

will be used to quantify health-related quality of life at baseline and Week 14 after randomization. All items in the FACT-G use a 5-point scale (0=Not at all to 4=Very much) and the total score sums four subscales and ranges from 0-108 (higher=better QoL). Change in total score at Week 14 after randomization vs. baseline.

Time frame: Week 14

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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