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Algorithm-enabled Goals of Care Communication (A-EPAC)

27 juillet 2026 mis à jour par: VA Office of Research and Development

Algorithm-Enabled Engagement of Patients With Advanced Cancer (A-EPAC) to Improve Goals of Care Communication Among Veterans With Advanced Stages of Cancer

In 2017, the VA launched the Life-Sustaining Treatment Decisions Initiative (LSTDI), a national program to promote Goals of Care communication between clinicians and patients regarding goals and preferences for care. Despite clinician training and standardized Life Sustaining Treatment (LST) notes in the electronic health record (EHR), 60% of Veterans with cancer have not engaged in such communication with their oncology clinicians before death. Over the past 10 years, the team developed and tested: 1) a lay health worker-led intervention to improve these conversations and reduce unwanted, intensive end-of-life care, and 2) an algorithm-driven approach to identify patients in need of urgent conversations with their clinical teams. This randomized study will evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention combining these two approaches across 7 VA oncology sites. The outcomes include LST documentation, Veteran-reported anxiety and depression, and the identification of factors to inform broad scale of Veteran-centric interventions to improve GoC communication.

Aperçu de l'étude

Statut

Pas encore de recrutement

Les conditions

Intervention / Traitement

Description détaillée

The investigators developed the Engagement of Patients with Advanced Cancer (EPAC) intervention - a 6-month telephone-based intervention in which trained lay health workers (LHWs) educate and empower Veterans with cancer to engage in goals of care conversations with their oncology clinical teams. To facilitate scale, the investigator propose Algorithm-Enabled EPAC (A-EPAC), which uses the VA Care Assessment Needs (CAN) score to automatically identify patients with cancer who could benefit from EPAC. This intent-to-treat randomized trial is conducted in collaboration with the NTO and the National VA Oncology Programs (NOP). The investigators will randomize 200 Veterans with cancer receiving care across 7 VA facilities to either the A-EPAC intervention (algorithm-based identification and referral to EPAC for 6-months) or usual cancer care alone (cancer care provided by oncology teams at the local site). Participants will be followed for 12-months post enrollment. The primary outcome is Life Sustaining Treatment documentation at 3 months post-enrollment. Secondary outcomes are patient anxiety and depression at 3 months measured by PROMIS® short forms. Exploratory outcomes include intensive end-of-life care, advance directive documentation, and acute care use. Using a quant-qual framework, the investigators will conduct validated surveys with 40 Veterans with cancer and Veteran and clinician interviews at 6 months to identify factors associated with feasibility, adoption, acceptability, and A-EPAC fidelity.

Type d'étude

Interventionnel

Inscription (Estimé)

200

Phase

  • N'est pas applicable

Contacts et emplacements

Cette section fournit les coordonnées de ceux qui mènent l'étude et des informations sur le lieu où cette étude est menée.

Coordonnées de l'étude

Lieux d'étude

  • États-Unis
    • California
      • Palo Alto, California, États-Unis, 94304-1207
        • VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA
        • Chercheur principal:
          • Manali I Patel, MD MSPH
        • Contact:

Critères de participation

Les chercheurs recherchent des personnes qui correspondent à une certaine description, appelée critères d'éligibilité. Certains exemples de ces critères sont l'état de santé général d'une personne ou des traitements antérieurs.

Critère d'éligibilité

Âges éligibles pour étudier

  • Adulte
  • Adulte plus âgé

Accepte les volontaires sains

Non

La description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Veteran patients with diagnosis of a solid malignancy with any cancer stage
  • English or Spanish-speaking
  • Can self-administer questionnaires in English or Spanish
  • Valid telephone number
  • Receiving oncology care at one of 7 sites

  • Receiving systemic anti-cancer therapy, defined as oral, injection, or intravenous therapy

    • chemotherapy
    • hormone therapy
    • targeted therapy
    • or immunotherapy defined by the National Cancer Institute A to Z List of Cancer Drugs)
  • CAN risk score ≥98th percentile (may be adjusted after examining site-level CAN performance)

Exclusion Criteria:

  • No capacity to consent
  • Actively receiving hospice care

Plan d'étude

Cette section fournit des détails sur le plan d'étude, y compris la façon dont l'étude est conçue et ce que l'étude mesure.

Comment l'étude est-elle conçue ?

Détails de conception

  • Objectif principal: Recherche sur les services de santé
  • Répartition: Randomisé
  • Modèle interventionnel: Affectation parallèle
  • Masquage: Tripler

Armes et Interventions

Groupe de participants / Bras
Intervention / Traitement
Comparateur actif: Usual Care
Participants will receive usual cancer care for 12 months or until death whichever is first.
Comportemental: Usual Care
Usual care or standard of care as per the clinical site in which participant is receiving cancer care.
Autres noms:
  • Standard of care, standard therapy
Expérimental: Usual Care + A-EPAC
Participants will be assigned to a lay health worker who will conduct education sessions over 30-45 minutes by phone initially followed by 15 minute conversations twice monthly for 6 months to discuss goals of care and how to engage in these discussions with their clinical teams. Participants will also receive usual cancer care for a total of 12 months or until death, whichever is first.
Comportemental: Usual Care
Usual care or standard of care as per the clinical site in which participant is receiving cancer care.
Autres noms:
  • Standard of care, standard therapy
Comportemental: Usual Care + A-EPAC
Educational and support intervention for participants regarding goals of care discussions and engagement in these topics with a lay health worker.
Autres noms:
  • Goals of Care Behavioral Intervention

Que mesure l'étude ?

Principaux critères de jugement

Mesure des résultats
Description de la mesure
Délai
Life Sustaining Treatment Documentation
Délai: 3 months
Proportion of participants in both study groups who have a life sustaining treatment document in the electronic health record.
3 months

Mesures de résultats secondaires

Mesure des résultats
Description de la mesure
Délai
Patient-reported Anxiety and Depression
Délai: 3 months
Change in mean score using the validated PROMIS Short Form v1.0 of Anxiety 4a and Depression 4a between time of enrollment and 3 months post-enrollment. Each scale consists of 4 items rated on a 5-point Likert scale. Higher scores indicate greater symptom severity. That is - higher score represents a worse outcome.
3 months
Advance Directive Documentation
Délai: 12 months
Proportion of participants with any advance directive documentation in the electronic health record between baseline and 12 months follow-up.
12 months
Acute Care Use
Délai: 12 months
Any hospitalization or emergency room admission within 12-months of follow-up.
12 months
Life Sustaining Treatment Documentation
Délai: 6 months
Proportion of participants in both study groups who have a life sustaining treatment document in the electronic health record.
6 months
Life Sustaining Treatment Documentation
Délai: 9 months
Proportion of participants in both study groups who have a life sustaining treatment document in the electronic health record.
9 months
Life Sustaining Treatment Documentation
Délai: 12 months
Proportion of participants in both study groups who have a life sustaining treatment document in the electronic health record.
12 months

Autres mesures de résultats

Mesure des résultats
Description de la mesure
Délai
Family reported quality of end-of-life care
Délai: 12 months
For participants who die during the study period, the VA Veterans Experience Center will administer the Bereaved Family Survey which solicits bereaved family evaluations of care in the last 30 days of life. One component of this survey is the National Quality Forum-endorsed measure called the BFS Performance Measure (BFS-PM), a single item evaluation of the overall quality of EOL care. This measure is measured a 5-point Likert scale, which investigators will dichotomize as "excellent" vs all other categories. This measure will be reported out descriptively.
12 months
Heard and Understood
Délai: 3 months
Descriptive measure using the National Quality Forum 4-item survey which assesses perceptions of quality of communication with the clinical team.
3 months
Proportion of patients with Intensive End of life Care
Délai: 12 months

Number of participants who die within 12-months of follow-up who had any

  • hospital or Intensive Care Unit admission <30 days before death,
  • receipt of any systemic therapy <14 days before death (defined as both oral and intravenous chemotherapy and immunotherapy),
  • hospice referral <3 days before death. (abstracted from electronic health record)
12 months
Acceptability
Délai: 6 months
Investigators will measure patient-reported acceptability using the 12-item validated Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM) (Veterans or designated caregivers)
6 months
Beliefs about GoC communication
Délai: 6 months
Beliefs related to GoC communication (e.g., self-efficacy and readiness) will be measured using the 15-item validated Advance Care Planning Engagement survey (Veterans or designated caregivers), which has been validated in diverse populations of outpatients with advanced cancer. Beliefs related to GoC communication will be assessed using the 28-item validated End-of-Life Care Questionnaire (EOL-Q) (clinicians, LHW)
6 months
Patient-Centered Care 1
Délai: 6 months
Patient-clinician communication will be measured among patients using validated communication items from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) (Veterans or designated caregivers).
6 months
Patient-Centered Care 2
Délai: 6 months
Patient engagement will be measured using a 4-item measure of shared decision making (SDM Process-4) (Veterans or designated caregivers)
6 months
Organizational Climate:
Délai: 6 months
Investigators will administer the 18-item validated Implementation Climate Scale to capture degree to which the clinic supports use of GoC communication (clinicians, LHW)
6 months
Pragmatic Context Assessment Tool (pCAT)
Délai: 6 months
Investigators will administer a 14-item tool to assess barriers and facilitators to A-EPAC within the CFIR framework (Veterans or designated caregivers, clinician, LHW)
6 months

Collaborateurs et enquêteurs

C'est ici que vous trouverez les personnes et les organisations impliquées dans cette étude.

Parrainer

VA Office of Research and Development

Les enquêteurs

  • Chercheur principal: Manali I Patel, MD MSPH, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA

Dates d'enregistrement des études

Ces dates suivent la progression des dossiers d'étude et des soumissions de résultats sommaires à ClinicalTrials.gov. Les dossiers d'étude et les résultats rapportés sont examinés par la Bibliothèque nationale de médecine (NLM) pour s'assurer qu'ils répondent à des normes de contrôle de qualité spécifiques avant d'être publiés sur le site Web public.

Dates principales de l'étude

Début de l'étude (Estimé)

15 septembre 2026

Achèvement primaire (Estimé)

30 juin 2031

Achèvement de l'étude (Estimé)

30 juin 2031

Dates d'inscription aux études

Première soumission

22 juin 2026

Première soumission répondant aux critères de contrôle qualité

7 juillet 2026

Première publication (Réel)

8 juillet 2026

Mises à jour des dossiers d'étude

Dernière mise à jour publiée (Réel)

29 juillet 2026

Dernière mise à jour soumise répondant aux critères de contrôle qualité

27 juillet 2026

Dernière vérification

1 juillet 2026

Plus d'information

Termes liés à cette étude

Mots clés

Termes MeSH pertinents supplémentaires

Autres numéros d'identification d'étude

  • HSR6-015-24W
  • 1-I01-RD-0000421-01-A1 (Autre subvention/numéro de financement: VA HSR&D eRA)

Plan pour les données individuelles des participants (IPD)

Prévoyez-vous de partager les données individuelles des participants (DPI) ?

NON

Informations sur les médicaments et les dispositifs, documents d'étude

Étudie un produit pharmaceutique réglementé par la FDA américaine

Non

Étudie un produit d'appareil réglementé par la FDA américaine

Non

produit fabriqué et exporté des États-Unis.

Non

Ces informations ont été extraites directement du site Web clinicaltrials.gov sans aucune modification. Si vous avez des demandes de modification, de suppression ou de mise à jour des détails de votre étude, veuillez contacter register@clinicaltrials.gov. Dès qu'un changement est mis en œuvre sur clinicaltrials.gov, il sera également mis à jour automatiquement sur notre site Web .

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