Increasing Adherence to Lung Cancer Screening

Abramson Cancer Center at Penn Medicine

Status: Enrolling

Conditions: Lung Cancer; Adherence, Patient

Treatments: Behavioral: Patient Nudge; Behavioral: Clinician Nudge

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other; NETWORK; Industry

Identifiers

NCT05832008

UPCC 09522

851056 (Other Identifier)

Details and patient eligibility

About

Investigators are conducting a pragmatic randomized trial testing the effectiveness of patient and clinician nudge strategies on adherence to lung cancer screening (LCS) & diagnostic follow-up across eligible primary care clinicians & patients. Following the trial, a subsample of patients & clinicians will be invited to one-time semi-structured interview & survey to identify individual & system-level factors that may restrict or enhance the impact of strategies.

Full description

Investigators will conduct a pragmatic clinical trial with a 2 x 2 factorial design with clinicians that provide care to screening-eligible patients who are overdue for annual screening or diagnostic evaluation. The specific nudge strategies to be tested are: 1) gain-framed messaging delivered via text messaging to prompt patient adherence to LCS guidelines (patient nudges); and 2) electronic health record (EHR) prompts alerting clinicians when their patients are due for annual screening or diagnostic follow-up (clinician nudges). The rationale for this study is that changing external stimuli to encourage adherence to evidence-based LCS guidelines will increase early detection of lung cancer by removing individual and system-level barriers to identifying and prompting patients who are due for care. The central hypothesis is that the combination of patient and clinician strategies will have the greatest effect on increasing adherence because it will target multilevel determinants of lung cancer screening identified in our prior research including limited screening knowledge and suboptimal EHR design. The proposed strategies are designed to support equitable implementation across diverse settings and populations.

Enrollment: 800 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 50 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Clinicians will be eligible if they:

1. are practicing primary care or specialty care physicians at a recruiting site within the University of Pennsylvania Health System;
2. care for patients who completed LCS via LDCT in 2019-2023; and
3. do not opt-out of study participation.

Patients will be eligible if they:

1. are eligible for LCS based on 2021 US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) population guidelines (aged 50-80; smoking history of 20-pack years; smoked within the last 15 years)
2. completed LCS via LDCT in 2019-2023;
3. have not been diagnosed with lung cancer;
4. meet criteria for non-adherence;
5. remain eligible for LCS during the trial enrollment period; and
6. receive LCS care from a clinician that has not opted-out of study participation

Exclusion criteria

Patients will be excluded if they:

a) have a highly suspicious baseline LDCT (Lung-RADS 4B/X) given the presence of existing clinical pathways to ensure adherence in this group

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Factorial Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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800 participants in 4 patient groups

Clinician Nudge + Patient Nudge

Experimental group

Description:

An EHR-prompt (pended order) will prompt clinicians in this arm when a patient is due for lung cancer screening or diagnostic follow-up. Patients in this arm will receive messaging designed to increase awareness about the importance of annual screening and recommended follow-up

Treatment:

Behavioral: Clinician Nudge

Behavioral: Patient Nudge

Clinician Nudge Only

Experimental group

Description:

Clinicians in this arm will not be prompted by a pended order when a patient is due for lung cancer screening or diagnostic follow-up. Patients will receive usual care.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Clinician Nudge

Patient Nudge Only

Experimental group

Description:

Patients in this arm will receive messaging designed to increase awareness about the importance of annual screening and recommended follow-up. Clinicians will receive usual care.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Patient Nudge

Usual care (no nudges)

No Intervention group

Description:

Patients and clinicians in this arm will receive usual care.