Clinician-Patient Communication in Lung Cancer Care

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK)

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Lung Cancer

Treatments: Behavioral: Standardized Patient Assessments; Behavioral: Training evaluation; Behavioral: Patient recruitment; Behavioral: 2-hour empathic communication skills training; Behavioral: Patient Interview; Behavioral: Audio recordings of clinical consultations; Behavioral: Questionnaire

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other; Industry

Identifiers

NCT02732834

16-001

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to better understand communication between patients with lung cancer and their clinicians. The investigators are also interested in patient's perceptions of the quality of communication with his/her clinician and how these perceptions may impact patient outcomes. The clinician participating in this study and has given us permission to approach his/her eligible patients for study participation.

Enrollment: 294 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Patients with confirmed lung cancer diagnosis or mass suspicious of lung cancer as per clinician report and/or EMR
• Lung cancer diagnosis or suspicious mass as per clinician report/EMR within 0-6 months of consent or within no more than three visits to participating clinician
• Participating clinician approves his/her patient's participation in this study per clinician report.
• Former (at least 100 cigarettes in lifetime and quit more than 30 days prior to enrollment) or current smoker (lifetime smoker who reports cigarette smoking within the past 30 days) as per self report or EMR;
• English fluency (determined through EMR or clinician report), as we do not have the resources to translate the consultations from other languages or the surveys to other languages;
• Patients must be 18 years old or older

Clinician Inclusion Criteria:

• An MSK attending physician (radiologists, medical oncologists, and surgeons), Nurse Practitioner (NP), Physician Assistant (PA), Fellow, Resident or Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) or Clinical Nurse (RN) who is a member of the Thoracic Disease Management Team or Pulmonary Service currently treating thoracic patients at MSK as per self report
• Clinical has individual clinic consultations to discuss adult health assessment and/or smoking history with the target patient population: English-speaking, at least 18 years of age, has a suspicious lung mass or confirmed diagnosis, is a former/current smoker, has had no more than 3 visits with clinician or had diagnosis in past 6 months as per self-report.

Exclusion criteria

Clinician Exclusion Criteria

• N/A

Trial design

294 participants in 4 patient groups

Part 1: Lung patients

Description:

Following informed consent, the patient will complete the patient questionnaire, either electronically, by phone, or on paper. Patients who prefer to complete the survey electronically will be emailed a link to access to a secure electronic (web-based) version of the study assessment which they will have access to from any computer. We will include an introductory email with the survey link. Will audio-record actual patient-physician clinical consultations with lung cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). Completing the survey will take about 15 minutes. Answer a few open-ended questions about the consultation with the doctor. We will audio record your answers to these questions. This will take about 15 minutes.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Questionnaire

Behavioral: Audio recordings of clinical consultations

Behavioral: Patient Interview

Behavioral: Questionnaire

Part 1: Thoracic physicians and clinicians

Description:

Will have 5 visits/consultations with their patients audio recorded.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Audio recordings of clinical consultations

Part 2: Lung patients

Description:

Following informed consent, the patient will complete the patient questionnaire, either electronically, by phone, or on paper. Patients who prefer to complete the survey electronically will be emailed a link to access to a secure electronic (web-based) version of the study assessment which they will have access to from any computer. Completing the survey will take about 15 minutes.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Questionnaire

Behavioral: Questionnaire

Part 2: Thoracic and pulmonary clinicians

Description:

Following informed consent, clinicians will be scheduled to participate in a 2 hour training on empathic communication with lung cancer patients. Surveys will be collected from 6 patients (3 pre-training, 3 post-training). Clinicians will complete one standardized patient assessment before training (pre-SPA) and one assessment after training (post-SPA). These are 12-minute video-recorded clinic consultations with standardized patients (trained actors).

Treatment:

Behavioral: 2-hour empathic communication skills training

Behavioral: Patient recruitment

Behavioral: Training evaluation

Behavioral: Standardized Patient Assessments