Pilot Study of a Symptom Monitoring Intervention for Hospitalized Patients With Cancer

Mass General Brigham

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cancer

Treatments: Other: Usual Care; Other: IMPROVED

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02891993

16-228

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this research study is to address the challenge of symptom management for hospitalized patients with cancer.

Full description

Patients with cancer may experience a considerable symptom burden, often requiring hospitalizations for symptom management. This study will pilot test an electronic symptom monitoring intervention, "Improving Management of Patient-Reported Outcomes Via Electronic Data (IMPROVED)," versus usual care in hospitalized patients with cancer.

The goal of this study is test a model where patients' symptoms are monitored during their hospital admission electronically via tablet computers. The investigators are studying whether patients whose clinicians receive their patients' detailed symptom reports each day have improved symptom management compared to those whose clinicians do not receive their patients' detailed symptom reports each day.

The study takes place at Massachusetts General Hospital and involves participating in a study for as long as the participants are admitted to the hospital. The information the investigators collect will help them determine if electronic symptom monitoring improves the care of patients with cancer.

Enrollment: 150 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Age 18 or older
• Diagnosed with incurable cancer (defined as receiving treatment with palliative intent as per chemotherapy order entry designation, trial consent forms, or not receiving chemotherapy but followed for incurable disease as per oncology clinic notes)
• Admitted to Lunder at Massachusetts General Hospital
• Verbal fluency in English

Exclusion criteria

• Unwilling or unable to participate in the study
• Admitted electively
• Participated during a previous admission

Trial design

Primary purpose: Supportive Care

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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150 participants in 2 patient groups

IMPROVED Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

* Patients randomized to IMPROVED will self-report their symptoms each day using a tablet computer. * The clinical team will view reports detailing their patients' symptom burden * Clinicians will be provided with a graphic depiction of their patients' daily symptom trajectory for that admission

Treatment:

Other: IMPROVED

Usual Care

Active Comparator group

Description:

* Patients randomized to Usual Care will self-report their symptoms each day using a tablet computer * Patients will report their symptoms to their clinicians as they usually would * Clinicians will not be provided with a graphic depiction of their patients' daily symptom trajectory for that admission

Treatment:

Other: Usual Care