My Wellbeing Guide: A Novel Tool for Managing Stress and Improving Quality of Life (R37)

May 28, 2026 updated by: Betina Yanez, Northwestern University

My Wellbeing Guide, Technology Facilitated Behavioral Intervention for Depression Among Diverse Patients in Ambulatory Oncology

The purpose of this study is to examine the implementation and effectiveness of the psychosocial eHealth intervention, My Wellbeing Guide, on the proposed primary outcome, depressive symptoms, in patients diagnosed with cancer who receive care at Northwestern Medicine and the University of Miami Health System. Eligible patients will be directly contacted by the study team for recruitment.

The intervention includes cognitive behavioral therapy management strategies for health-related stress in the form of animated videos, interactive activities, and written content. The intervention will be delivered via an online application over an 7-week period. Intervention participants will also complete four assessments: baseline (at the beginning of the research study), post-intervention (7 weeks after baseline), a 6-month follow-up, and a 12-month follow up.

Participants are randomized into either an intervention application (described above) or a control application (which will provide links to helpful resources for patients with cancer, such as the contact information for cancer support services at Northwestern University and the University of Miami, and the link to the National Cancer Institute website, and the American Cancer Society website.) Control participants will also complete four assessments: baseline (at the beginning of the research study), post-intervention (7 weeks after baseline), a 6-month follow-up, and a 12-month follow up.

Study Overview

Status

Recruiting

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Depression is one of the most common psychological comorbidities experienced throughout the cancer continuum. Elevated depressive symptoms in oncology patients is a major concern as unmanaged depressive symptoms in cancer patients is associated with poor health-related quality of life (HRQoL), poor adherence to cancer treatments, delayed return to work and baseline function, greater emergency department visits, and higher all-cause mortality. Behavioral interventions for the management of depression are efficacious, but scalability and implementation of these evidence-based interventions in oncology is limited. Health information technologies (HIT) provide an ideal opportunity to expedite the administration, scoring, and interpretation of depression screening with well-validated, brief and precise measurement tools that can capture actionable data to screen for depression, and deliver pragmatic and scalable evidence-based behavioral interventions that are proven to reduce depressive symptomatology across various other populations.

The study takes place across two distinct health systems in two major metropolitan areas-Chicago and Miami (Northwestern Medicine and University of Miami Health System). While across the two health systems (NM and UHealth), patients already receive EHR-delivered assessments that are linked to EPIC and real-time alerts sent to supportive oncology for patients with moderately to severely elevated symptoms, a lacking component is the integration of an evidence-based, HIT management program for elevated depressive symptoms.

The investigators will evaluate the effectiveness and the implementation of an evidence-based HIT behavioral treatment for cancer patients with elevated depressive symptoms. This HIT treatment combines systematic, electronic health record-integrated screening for depressive symptoms with an individually-tailored HIT interventions to address gaps in the treatment of depression among cancer patients. The investigators' specific aims are as follows:

Aim 1a. To further develop and refine My Wellbeing Guide, a web-based platform to optimize management of elevated depressive symptoms in ambulatory oncology in two large health systems.

Aim 1b. To establish the effectiveness of My Wellbeing Guide on depressive symptoms (i.e., primary outcome) and anxiety, HRQoL, and health services utilization (i.e. secondary outcomes), and putative mechanisms of action/mediators (e.g., self -efficacy) of My Wellbeing Guide on study outcomes compared to usual care.

Aim 1c. To evaluate the process of implementing My Wellbeing Guide and its impact on patient and system-level outcomes through electronic health record (EHR) extractions of Aim 1b patients, and through clinician, and hospital administrator interviews.

Aim 2. To identify facilitators and barriers to wide-scale implementation and expansion of My Wellbeing Guide through interviews and focus groups with stakeholders (clinicians, hospital administrators, and patients who participated in My Wellbeing Guide).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

6516

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

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

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Study Locations

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

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

a) having been reached out to by the study team for recruitment; (b) planned treatment and follow-up within the NM or UHealth healthcare system; (c) ≥ 18 years of age; (d) medical chart confirmed diagnosis of a solid or hematological malignancy; (e) elevated depressive symptoms on the PROMIS CAT (score > or = 55) within the last 3 months; (f) access to the internet; (g) willingness to be randomized; (h) able to read English or Spanish; (i) patients must have signed informed consent prior to registration on study

Exclusion Criteria:

Note: The investigators will not include any vulnerable populations in this study.

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

  • Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Intervention
The intervention includes cognitive behavioral therapy management strategies for health-related stress in the form of animated videos, interactive activities, and written content. The intervention will be delivered via an online application over an 7-week period. Intervention participants will also complete four assessments: baseline (at the beginning of the research study), post-intervention (7 weeks after baseline), a 6-month follow-up, and a 12-month follow up.
The intervention includes cognitive behavioral therapy management strategies for health-related stress in the form of animated videos, interactive activities, and written content. The intervention will be delivered via an online application over an 7-week period. Intervention participants will also complete four assessments: baseline (at the beginning of the research study), post-intervention (7 weeks after baseline), a 6-month follow-up, and a 12-month follow up.
No Intervention: Control
The control application will provide links to helpful resources for patients with cancer, such as the contact information for cancer support services at Northwestern University and the University of Miami, and the link to the National Cancer Institute website, and the American Cancer Society website. Control participants will also complete four assessments: baseline (at the beginning of the research study), post-intervention (7 weeks after baseline), a 6-month follow-up, and a 12-month follow up.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in depressive symptoms will be evaluated with the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Depression
Time Frame: T1 (prior to starting intervention), T2 (7 weeks post intervention), T3 (6 months post-intervention), T4 (12 months post-intervention)
The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Depression questionnaire is a previously validated patient-report measure of depressive symptoms in the last seven days. Scores generally range from 20 - 80, with higher scores indicating a patient is reporting more severe levels of depression.
T1 (prior to starting intervention), T2 (7 weeks post intervention), T3 (6 months post-intervention), T4 (12 months post-intervention)

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in anxiety will be evaluated with the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Anxiety
Time Frame: T1 (prior to starting intervention), T2 (7 weeks post intervention), T3 (6 months post-intervention), T4 (12 months post-intervention)
The Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Anxiety questionnaire is a previously validated patient-report measure of symptoms of anxiety in the last seven days. Scores generally range from 20 - 80, with higher scores indicating a patient is reporting more severe levels of anxiety.
T1 (prior to starting intervention), T2 (7 weeks post intervention), T3 (6 months post-intervention), T4 (12 months post-intervention)
Change in Health Related Quality of Life will be evaluated with The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General - 7 item version (FACT-G7)
Time Frame: T1 (prior to starting intervention), T2 (7 weeks post intervention), T3 (6 months post-intervention), T4 (12 months post-intervention)
The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General - 7 item version (FACT-G7) has been used extensively to measure Health Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). The FACT-G7assesses participant's wellbeing in physical, emotional, social, and functional concerns in the last seven days using a five-point response scale. Scores range from 0-28, with higher scores indicating better quality of life.
T1 (prior to starting intervention), T2 (7 weeks post intervention), T3 (6 months post-intervention), T4 (12 months post-intervention)

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Betina Yanez, PhD, Northwestern University

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)

December 2, 2022

Primary Completion (Estimated)

July 5, 2028

Study Completion (Estimated)

July 5, 2028

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

April 29, 2022

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 6, 2022

First Posted (Actual)

May 11, 2022

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

June 1, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 28, 2026

Last Verified

May 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • STU00213537
  • 1R37CA255875-01 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.

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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