Transitioning Care: Perspectives of Older Women With Early Breast Cancer on Current Telemedicine Modalities

December 1, 2021 updated by: UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

Explosive growth in the use of telemedicine (video or telephone visits) has followed the onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in order to meet healthcare needs while avoiding unnecessary exposure risks in ambulatory care spaces. Accordingly, in March 2020, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services expanded reimbursement for telemedicine visits to equal that of in-person services. The policy and infrastructure that enabled this emergency transition is laying the groundwork for enduring expansion of elective telemedicine, a technology that could significantly decrease the burden of medical care in older patients with cancer. To benefit from telehealth, patients must have a certain level of knowledge and capacity to engage with technology, which can be a challenge for some older adults because of inexperience, access, and disability. As cancer is mainly a disease of older adults, with a median age of 65 at diagnosis for most cancer types, this is a significant limitation on the utility of telemedicine in oncology.

The goal of our study is to better understand older breast cancer patients' experiences with telephone and video telemedicine with regard to visit convenience, completeness, and interpersonal satisfaction through semi-structured interviews with patients.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Methods:

30 participants will be consented in this study. 20 will have participated in video telemedicine appointments with their treating breast cancer oncologists, and 10 will have used telephone. Semi-structured interviews lasting no more than 30 minutes will be conducted to ascertain the participant's (1) reason for choosing a certain telemedicine modality, (2) perception of telemedicine visit convenience, completeness, and interpersonal satisfaction compared to in-person visits, and (3) use of peripheral virtual support from healthcare team, such as messaging in MyChart. After the interview has been conducted, the patient will be asked complete the patient-reported portion of the Geriatric Assessment (GA) either through an internet link, or verbally with the research staff reading the questions and recording the answers. Data pertaining to the participant's breast cancer diagnosis and treatment will be extracted from Epic@UNC.

Study Type

Observational

Enrollment (Actual)

15

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • North Carolina
      • Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States, 27599
        • UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, School of Medicine

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

65 years to 110 years (Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

N/A

Genders Eligible for Study

Female

Sampling Method

Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

Patients diagnosed with early BC (Stage I-III) who have completed primary treatment and received in-person outpatient care at North Carolina Cancer Hospital before transitioning to telemedicine after March 2020.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • female
  • age 65 or older
  • diagnosed with early breast cancer (Stage I-III)
  • completed primary treatment (surgery, chemotherapy, radiation treatment)
  • received in-person outpatient care at North Caroline Cancer Hospital before transitioning to telemedicine after March 2020
  • providing written informed consent
  • able to understand and speak English.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Patients who do not meet the inclusion criteria stated above will be excluded. There will be no further exclusion criteria.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Observational Models: Case-Only
  • Time Perspectives: Retrospective

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort
Intervention / Treatment
Video Telemedicine
20 participants will have used video telemedicine for appointments with their treating oncologist.
Behavioral: Semistructured Interview
Patients with breast cancer (Stage I-III) will be interviewed about their experiences of telemedicine.
Telephone Telemedicine
10 participants will have used telephone telemedicine for appointments with their treating oncologist.
Behavioral: Semistructured Interview
Patients with breast cancer (Stage I-III) will be interviewed about their experiences of telemedicine.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Qualitative Summaries of Interviews about Participant Experience with Telemedicine
Time Frame: 3 months post study start
Qualitative Summaries derived from content analysis of semi-structured interview transcripts around themes and sub themes of convenience, psychosocial experience, baseline comfort with technology, preference for telephone vs. video visits, and desire to continue using telemedicine in the future.
3 months post study start

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Caroline R Buse, MM, BA, BM, UNC School of Medicine Student

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Helpful Links

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

July 2, 2021

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 10, 2021

Study Completion (Actual)

October 10, 2021

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

June 25, 2021

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 26, 2021

First Posted (Actual)

August 5, 2021

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

December 9, 2021

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 1, 2021

Last Verified

December 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • LCCC2105

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Yes

IPD Plan Description

Deidentified individual data that supports the results will be shared beginning 12 to 24 months following publication provided the investigator who proposes to use the data has approval from an Institutional Review Board (IRB), Independent Ethics Committee (IEC), or Research Ethics Board (REB), as applicable, and executes a data use/sharing agreement with UNC.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

9 to 24 months following publication

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

When data sharing is permitted, a Data Use Agreement (DUA) specifying the uses of such data to be shared must be in place before any data is shared. Requests can be submitted to the UNC Office of Industry Contracting for processing. The Principal Investigator must confirm that the DUA has been fully executed and IRB, IEC, or REB approval has been granted before sharing data.

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • Study Protocol
  • Informed Consent Form (ICF)

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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