Digital Delivery of Patient Education: A Case Study of Symptom Self-Management During Cancer Treatment

Tel Aviv University

Status

Enrolling

Conditions

Digital Education Interventions

Knowledge Types (Mechanistic Versus Procedural)

Treatments

Behavioral: Digital education

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT06187610

CancerEducationTau

Details and patient eligibility

About

The increasing shift from face-to-face to online patient-clinician encounters in the healthcare system requires patients to be more involved in their medical care. This raises the urgent need to evaluate the extent to which proactive patients' self-care can be supported, particularly by informed telemedicine digital channels. Despite this imperative, research offering evidence-based instructional design of digital education remains surprisingly scarce. Embracing the framework of science education, which highlights the functional role of different knowledge types in educational processes, the current study seeks to evaluate an educational approach aimed at supporting cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy.

Cancer treatment serves as an exemplar health condition, demanding daily self-management from patients. The objectives of our research are as follows: (1) To delineate the types of knowledge required for effective symptom management, active participation in one's healthcare, and judicious decision-making regarding emergency room (ER) visits, with a focus on mechanistic knowledge pertaining to the rationale for treatment and procedural knowledge concerning the treatment regimen. (2) To appraise the impact of a digital learning environment in contrast to traditional methods on patients' acquisition of mechanistic and procedural knowledge. (3) To identify how patients engage with the digital patient education environment aiming to outline leaning patterns.

The investigators hypothesize that implementing digital education will enhance patients' understanding of both the 'why' (mechanistic) and 'how' (procedural) aspects of their treatment. Importantly, the investigators expect that mechanistic knowledge will be more impactful than procedural knowledge, leading to better symptom management and patient involvement, and ultimately reducing unnecessary visits to the ER.

Enrollment

110 estimated patients

Sex

All

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Gastrointestinal (GI) cancer patients
Chemotherapy session within a specific round of treatment, with eligible treatments including FOLFOX, FOLFIRINOX, and FLOT.
Hebrew speakers.

Exclusion criteria

Impaired or degraded cognitive capabilities that may hinder effective learning.
Individuals who discontinue their treatments due to terminal advancement of their disease or death.