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

27. juli 2026 oppdatert av: 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.

Studieoversikt

Status

Har ikke rekruttert ennå

Forhold

Intervensjon / Behandling

Detaljert beskrivelse

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.

Studietype

Intervensjonell

Registrering (Antatt)

200

Fase

  • Ikke aktuelt

Kontakter og plasseringer

Denne delen inneholder kontaktinformasjon for de som utfører studien, og informasjon om hvor denne studien blir utført.

Studiekontakt

Studiesteder

  • Forente stater
    • California
      • Palo Alto, California, Forente stater, 94304-1207
        • VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, CA
        • Hovedetterforsker:
          • Manali I Patel, MD MSPH
        • Ta kontakt med:

Deltakelseskriterier

Forskere ser etter personer som passer til en bestemt beskrivelse, kalt kvalifikasjonskriterier. Noen eksempler på disse kriteriene er en persons generelle helsetilstand eller tidligere behandlinger.

Kvalifikasjonskriterier

Alder som er kvalifisert for studier

  • Voksen
  • Eldre voksen

Tar imot friske frivillige

Nei

Beskrivelse

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

Studieplan

Denne delen gir detaljer om studieplanen, inkludert hvordan studien er utformet og hva studien måler.

Hvordan er studiet utformet?

Designdetaljer

  • Primært formål: Helsetjenesteforskning
  • Tildeling: Randomisert
  • Intervensjonsmodell: Parallell tildeling
  • Masking: Trippel

Våpen og intervensjoner

Deltakergruppe / Arm
Intervensjon / Behandling
Aktiv komparator: Usual Care
Participants will receive usual cancer care for 12 months or until death whichever is first.
Atferdsmessig: Usual Care
Usual care or standard of care as per the clinical site in which participant is receiving cancer care.
Andre navn:
  • Standard of care, standard therapy
Eksperimentell: 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.
Atferdsmessig: Usual Care
Usual care or standard of care as per the clinical site in which participant is receiving cancer care.
Andre navn:
  • Standard of care, standard therapy
Atferdsmessig: 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.
Andre navn:
  • Goals of Care Behavioral Intervention

Hva måler studien?

Primære resultatmål

Resultatmål
Tiltaksbeskrivelse
Tidsramme
Life Sustaining Treatment Documentation
Tidsramme: 3 months
Proportion of participants in both study groups who have a life sustaining treatment document in the electronic health record.
3 months

Sekundære resultatmål

Resultatmål
Tiltaksbeskrivelse
Tidsramme
Patient-reported Anxiety and Depression
Tidsramme: 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
Tidsramme: 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
Tidsramme: 12 months
Any hospitalization or emergency room admission within 12-months of follow-up.
12 months
Life Sustaining Treatment Documentation
Tidsramme: 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
Tidsramme: 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
Tidsramme: 12 months
Proportion of participants in both study groups who have a life sustaining treatment document in the electronic health record.
12 months

Andre resultatmål

Resultatmål
Tiltaksbeskrivelse
Tidsramme
Family reported quality of end-of-life care
Tidsramme: 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
Tidsramme: 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
Tidsramme: 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
Tidsramme: 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
Tidsramme: 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
Tidsramme: 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
Tidsramme: 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:
Tidsramme: 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)
Tidsramme: 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

Samarbeidspartnere og etterforskere

Det er her du vil finne personer og organisasjoner som er involvert i denne studien.

Sponsor

VA Office of Research and Development

Etterforskere

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

Studierekorddatoer

Disse datoene sporer fremdriften for innsending av studieposter og sammendragsresultater til ClinicalTrials.gov. Studieposter og rapporterte resultater gjennomgås av National Library of Medicine (NLM) for å sikre at de oppfyller spesifikke kvalitetskontrollstandarder før de legges ut på det offentlige nettstedet.

Studer hoveddatoer

Studiestart (Antatt)

15. september 2026

Primær fullføring (Antatt)

30. juni 2031

Studiet fullført (Antatt)

30. juni 2031

Datoer for studieregistrering

Først innsendt

22. juni 2026

Først innsendt som oppfylte QC-kriteriene

7. juli 2026

Først lagt ut (Faktiske)

8. juli 2026

Oppdateringer av studieposter

Sist oppdatering lagt ut (Faktiske)

29. juli 2026

Siste oppdatering sendt inn som oppfylte QC-kriteriene

27. juli 2026

Sist bekreftet

1. juli 2026

Mer informasjon

Begreper knyttet til denne studien

Nøkkelord

Ytterligere relevante MeSH-vilkår

Andre studie-ID-numre

  • HSR6-015-24W
  • 1-I01-RD-0000421-01-A1 (Annet stipend/finansieringsnummer: VA HSR&D eRA)

Plan for individuelle deltakerdata (IPD)

Planlegger du å dele individuelle deltakerdata (IPD)?

NEI

Legemiddel- og utstyrsinformasjon, studiedokumenter

Studerer et amerikansk FDA-regulert medikamentprodukt

Nei

Studerer et amerikansk FDA-regulert enhetsprodukt

Nei

produkt produsert i og eksportert fra USA

Nei

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