Effect of Pre-operative Virtual Visits on Patients With Head and Neck Cancer Undergoing Surgery

University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center

Overview

Patients with head and neck cancer often undergo complex surgeries requiring significant care post-operatively. This presents considerable psychosocial challenges in addition to their need to physically recover from a large surgery. The study team will interview patients who have undergone virtual visits before their surgical procedures. The study aims to explore patients' experiences, satisfaction, and perceptions of virtual visits for informing and preparing them for surgery and their postoperative care needs. The study team will also analyze the effects of the virtual visits on financial costs and patient outcomes such as length of hospital stay, delayed discharges due to social issues, and whether the virtual visits identified any significant medical concerns, etc. The study team will compare these to a randomly selected cohort of patients who also underwent surgical resection and reconstruction for head and neck cancer that did not get pre-operative virtual visits.

Study Type

OBSERVATIONAL

Conditions

Head and Neck Cancer

Interventions

SurveyOTHER

For the patients who underwent a pre-operative virtual visit, data will be collected through semi-structured interviews conducted by trained research personnel. The interviews will be conducted in a one-on-one format, either in-person or via telephone, according to the participant's preference.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 18 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria (Pre-operative Visit Arm) * Patients \> 18 years * Underwent surgery for head and neck cancer with free flap reconstruction at the University of Michigan * Underwent a pre-operative virtual visit. Inclusion Criteria (NO Pre-operative Visit Arm) * Patients \> 18 years * Underwent surgery for head and neck cancer with free flap reconstruction at the University of Michigan Exclusion Criteria (Pre-operative Visit Arm) * Patients who died within 60 days of surgery for head and neck cancer with free flap reconstruction at the University of Michigan. Exclusion Criteria (NO Pre-operative Visit Arm) * Patients who died within 60 days of surgery for head and neck cancer with free flap reconstruction at the University of Michigan. * Patient underwent a pre-operative virtual visit.

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Effectiveness of virtual visits as determined by satisfaction scores

To examine the satisfaction scores of patients who undergo pre-operative virtual visits. The satisfaction scale is graded on a modified Likert scale. The endpoint for this primary objective is the score given by the patient on the interview-based survey

Time frame: at time of enrollment

Secondary Outcomes

Comparison in hospitalization between cohorts

To examine if patients who undergo pre-operative virtual visits have reduced hospital length of stay (i.e. number of days hospitalization post-operatively) compared to patients who did not undergo these visits.

Time frame: up to 60 days after the surgical resection

Comparison in post-operative communication

To examine if patients who undergo pre-operative virtual visits have reduced post-operative communication measured in portal messages and phone calls compared to patients who did not undergo these visits.

Time frame: up to 60 days after the surgical resection