Wearable and Patient-reported Outcome-based Continuous Assessment and Support Alerts in Palliative Care (wePRO-CASA)

Royal North Shore Hospital

Status: Completed

Conditions: Digital Health; Patient Reported Outcome Measures; Cancer; Caregiver; Wearable Electronic Devices; Palliative Care

Treatments: Device: Garmin VivoSmart 4; Device: mema - ilumivu

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05273580

wePRO-CASA

Details and patient eligibility

About

Non-professional carers (typically family members) play a critical role in providing adequate home care. This research explores the use of wearable sensors (WS) and electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) surveys to monitor stress levels of advanced cancer patient/carer dyads. During wear times, WS-triggered ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) were conducted via short smartphone-based surveys. This pilot study investigates the feasibility of EMAs in community palliative care.

Full description

Non-professional carers (typically family members) play a critical role in providing adequate home care along with professional caregivers. However, the physical and emotional toll of caring for a family member can lead to distress and burn out of the carer. The latter often results in the need for temporary or permanent institutional care of the patient. This research explores the feasibility of wearable sensors (WS) and electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) surveys to monitor activity patterns and stress levels of advanced cancer patient/caregiver dyads in order to understand their needs better.

Throughout the study, wearable sensors are used to passively record physiological data from patient/carer dyads. During wear times, WS recordings trigger ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) conducted via surveys. This pilot investigates the feasibility and acceptability of EMAs in community palliative care and the potential for incorporating EMA-based interventions into routine care. Future studies may explore the possibility of ecological momentary interventions (EMIs) to trigger just-in-time targeted interventions.

Enrollment: 30 patients

Sex: All

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Palliative care patient attending at Northern Sydney Cancer Centre, RNSH
• Patient and carer dyad
• Both patient and carer consent
• Patient Karnofsky Performance Scale ≥ 50
• Patient and carer have compatible smart phone

Exclusion criteria

• Unwilling or unable to give informed consent

Trial design

30 participants in 2 patient groups

Patients

Description:

Eligible patients will be identified by the Nurse Practitioner Cancer \& Palliative Care.

Treatment:

Device: Garmin VivoSmart 4

Device: mema - ilumivu

Carers

Description:

The respective carers who are identified by the Nurse Practitioner Cancer \& Palliative Care as eligible participants.

Treatment:

Device: Garmin VivoSmart 4

Device: mema - ilumivu