DISCO: A Patient Intervention to Reduce the Financial Burden of Cancer
Lauren Hamel
Summary
The DISCO App is designed to improve, during the interaction, patient active participation and patient-initiated oncologist treatment cost discussions, and, in the short term, patient's treatment cost knowledge, self-efficacy for managing both cost and physician interactions, referrals, perceived financial toxicity (i.e., distress and material hardship); in turn, these will affect longer-term outcomes of financial toxicity and adherence.
Description
This work is based on the core scientific premise - that increasing patient active participation and the frequency and quality of treatment cost discussions will decrease the short- and longer-term burdens of financial toxicity through their influence on self-efficacy for managing treatment cost. The focus is on patient self-efficacy for managing treatment cost because it is expected that improved treatment cost education and patient-oncologist treatment cost discussions prompted by the DISCO App will directly improve the self-efficacy needed for patients to proactively manage treatment costs,…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 18+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Oncologists are eligible if they treat patients with breast, prostate, lung, or colorectal cancers at Karmanos Cancer Institute. Data from oncologists will include their self-report data and video-recorded treatment discussions with participating patients. * Patients: Must be able to read and write in English; have an email account; and are newly diagnosed with breast, prostate, lung or colorectal cancer (stage I-IV) for which systemic therapy is a likely recommended treatment. Data from patients will include their self-report data, video-recorded treatment discussions w…
Interventions
- BehavioralGroup 2: The DISCO App
Patients will receive an individually-tailorable cancer treatment cost education and communication intervention delivered on an iPad just prior to meeting with their oncologist.
- BehavioralGroup 1: Usual Care
Patients randomized to this arm will receive usual care.
- BehavioralGroup 3: The DISCO App + Booster
Patients will receive an individually-tailorable cancer treatment cost education and communication intervention delivered on an iPad just prior to meeting with their oncologist. Then, 2 months later they will receive an intervention booster in the form of an individually-tailored email to remind patients of the contents of the intervention.
Location
- Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer InstituteDetroit, Michigan