Clinician-Patient Communication in Lung Cancer Care

The purpose of this study is to better understand communication between patients with lung cancer and their clinicians. The investigators are also interested in patient's perceptions of the quality of communication with his/her clinician and how these perceptions may impact patient outcomes. The clinician participating in this study and has given us permission to approach his/her eligible patients for study participation.

Study Overview

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Conditions: Lung Cancer
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Questionnaire; Behavioral: Patient Interview; Behavioral: Audio recordings of clinical consultations; Behavioral: Questionnaire; Behavioral: 2-hour empathic communication skills training; Behavioral: Standardized Patient Assessments; Behavioral: Training evaluation; Behavioral: Patient recruitment

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Actual): 294

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • New Jersey
    • Basking Ridge, New Jersey, United States
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Basking Ridge (Consent and follow-up only)
    • Middletown, New Jersey, United States, 07748
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth (Consent and Follow-Up only)
    • Montvale, New Jersey, United States, 07645
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen (Consent and follow-up only)
  • New York
    • Commack, New York, United States, 11725
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Commack (Consent and follow-up only)
    • Harrison, New York, United States, 10604
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Westchester (Consent and follow-up only)
    • New York, New York, United States, 10065
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
    • Uniondale, New York, United States, 11553
      • Memorial Sloan Kettering Nassau (Consent and Follow-Up only)

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 14 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

MSK thoracic clinic, pulmonary clinic

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients with confirmed lung cancer diagnosis or mass suspicious of lung cancer as per clinician report and/or EMR
• Lung cancer diagnosis or suspicious mass as per clinician report/EMR within 0-6 months of consent or within no more than three visits to participating clinician
• Participating clinician approves his/her patient's participation in this study per clinician report.
• Former (at least 100 cigarettes in lifetime and quit more than 30 days prior to enrollment) or current smoker (lifetime smoker who reports cigarette smoking within the past 30 days) as per self report or EMR;
• English fluency (determined through EMR or clinician report), as we do not have the resources to translate the consultations from other languages or the surveys to other languages;
• Patients must be 18 years old or older

Clinician Inclusion Criteria:

• An MSK attending physician (radiologists, medical oncologists, and surgeons), Nurse Practitioner (NP), Physician Assistant (PA), Fellow, Resident or Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) or Clinical Nurse (RN) who is a member of the Thoracic Disease Management Team or Pulmonary Service currently treating thoracic patients at MSK as per self report
• Clinical has individual clinic consultations to discuss adult health assessment and/or smoking history with the target patient population: English-speaking, at least 18 years of age, has a suspicious lung mass or confirmed diagnosis, is a former/current smoker, has had no more than 3 visits with clinician or had diagnosis in past 6 months as per self-report.

Exclusion Criteria:

Clinician Exclusion Criteria

• N/A

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Observational Models: Cohort
• Time Perspectives: Cross-Sectional

Number of groups / cohorts

4

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
Part 1: Lung patients; Following informed consent, the patient will complete the patient questionnaire, either electronically, by phone, or on paper. Patients who prefer to complete the survey electronically will be emailed a link to access to a secure electronic (web-based) version of the study assessment which they will have access to from any computer. We will include an introductory email with the survey link. Will audio-record actual patient-physician clinical consultations with lung cancer patients at Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). Completing the survey will take about 15 minutes. Answer a few open-ended questions about the consultation with the doctor. We will audio record your answers to these questions. This will take about 15 minutes.	Behavioral: Questionnaire; patients will fill out a questionnaire about their perceived stigma, satisfaction with communication, and psychological distress.; Behavioral: Patient Interview; Then they will participate in a brief in-person interview about their perceived stigma during the clinical consultation; Behavioral: Audio recordings of clinical consultations; Behavioral: Questionnaire; Patients will fill out a questionnaire about their perceived stigma and satisfaction with their clinician's communication.
Part 1: Thoracic physicians and clinicians; Will have 5 visits/consultations with their patients audio recorded.	Behavioral: Audio recordings of clinical consultations
Part 2: Lung patients; Following informed consent, the patient will complete the patient questionnaire, either electronically, by phone, or on paper. Patients who prefer to complete the survey electronically will be emailed a link to access to a secure electronic (web-based) version of the study assessment which they will have access to from any computer. Completing the survey will take about 15 minutes.	Behavioral: Questionnaire; patients will fill out a questionnaire about their perceived stigma, satisfaction with communication, and psychological distress.; Behavioral: Questionnaire; Patients will fill out a questionnaire about their perceived stigma and satisfaction with their clinician's communication.
Part 2: Thoracic and pulmonary clinicians; Following informed consent, clinicians will be scheduled to participate in a 2 hour training on empathic communication with lung cancer patients. Surveys will be collected from 6 patients (3 pre-training, 3 post-training). Clinicians will complete one standardized patient assessment before training (pre-SPA) and one assessment after training (post-SPA). These are 12-minute video-recorded clinic consultations with standardized patients (trained actors).	Behavioral: 2-hour empathic communication skills training; 2-hour empathic communication skills training; Behavioral: Standardized Patient Assessments; pre-training SPA, post-training SPA; Behavioral: Training evaluation; Clinicians will complete an evaluation assessing the empathic communication training module.; Behavioral: Patient recruitment; 6 of the clinician's patients (3 pre-training, 3 post-training) will be recruited to complete brief surveys assessing clinician communication

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Part 1: Systematic coding of clinical encounters and the perceived stigma within the clinical consultation	interview along with patient-reported data from the post-consultation questionnaire will be used.	1 year
Part 1: All variables (stigma, satisfaction with communication, psychological distress)	will be measured via post-consultation questionnaires	1 year
Part 2: We will pilot test the effectiveness of the empathic communication skills training module	for clinicians: physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, fellows, residents, clinical nurses, and clinical nurse specialists by using the communication skills training module	1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
# of patients referred to MSK's Tobacco Treatment Program (TTP)	will be determined via review of the medical record and/or Tobacco Treatment Program database	1 year

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
• Collaborators: University of Florida; Weill Medical College of Cornell University; Hamad Medical Corporation; University of Arizona
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Jamie Ostroff, PhD, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 1, 2016
• Primary Completion (Estimated): January 1, 2027
• Study Completion (Estimated): January 1, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 14, 2016
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 4, 2016
• First Posted (Estimated): April 11, 2016

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): February 5, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: February 3, 2026
• Last Verified: February 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: Clinician-Patient Communication; 16-001
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Neoplasms by Site; Neoplasms; Respiratory Tract Diseases; Lung Diseases; Respiratory Tract Neoplasms; Thoracic Neoplasms; Lung Neoplasms; Health Services Administration; Health Care Quality, Access, and Evaluation; Investigative Techniques; Epidemiologic Methods; Research Design; Methods; Data Collection; Health Care Evaluation Mechanisms; Quality of Health Care; Public Health; Environment and Public Health; Patient Care Management; Surveys and Questionnaires; Patient Selection
• Other Study ID Numbers: 16-001