Physician-Patient Communication About Breast Cancer-Related Internet Information and Its Effect on Patient Satisfaction and Anxiety

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Breast Cancer

Treatments: Behavioral: audio recordings , questionnaires; Behavioral: questionnaires; Behavioral: audio recorded questionnaires

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other; NIH

Identifiers

NCT00712569

08-079

R03CA130591-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

NIH

NCI

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to learn about how patients who have looked up cancer-related information on the internet talk with their doctors. We are interested in these conversations even if the patients do not think they will talk about the information with their doctor during their visit. We will audio record doctor-patient visits and listen to these recordings to learn about how patients who have looked up cancer-related internet information talk to their doctors and how their doctors talk to them. We will also give patients questionnaires before and after their appointments to learn about what they think about communicating with their doctors.

Enrollment: 85 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 21+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Subject Inclusion Criteria for Patients

• Female
• Diagnosis of breast cancer
• Pre-surgery (*for breast surgeon patients only)
• Report that they have read breast cancer-related internet information since their diagnosis with breast cancer.
• Provide informed consent

Subject Inclusion Criteria Physicians

• Breast surgeon or breast medical oncologist
• Agree to participate in study and one of 10 selected participants
• Provide inform consent

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria for Patients

• Less than 21 years of age
• Cognitive or physical impairment rendering patients incapable of providing informed consent to participate in the study
• As the measures and coding system are all written in English, subjects who are not fluent in English will be excluded.

Exclusion Criteria for Physicians

• None

Trial design

85 participants in 3 patient groups

1

Description:

Patients in Category 1 are those who report before the visit that they intend to discuss cancer-related internet information and report after the visit that they did discuss such information.

Treatment:

Behavioral: questionnaires

2

Description:

Patients in Category 2 are those who report before the visit that they intend to discuss cancer-related internet information, but report after the visit that they did not discuss such information.

Treatment:

Behavioral: audio recordings , questionnaires

3

Description:

Patients in Category 3 are those who report before the visit that they do not intend to discuss cancer-related internet information and do not discuss it.

Treatment:

Behavioral: audio recorded questionnaires