A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Avatar-based Supportive Care Intervention for Patients Undergoing Outpatient Stem Cell Transplantation
Victor Wang
Summary
The overall goal of this study is to assess the efficacy of the care.coach Avatar™ in improving anxiety and quality of life for patients undergoing outpatient transplant. After care.coach Avatar™ content and scheduling ("digital intervention" or "program") has been optimized for outpatient allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT), a randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted of the digital versus usual supportive care program for outpatient HCT recipients. Potential improvements in anxiety and quality of life will be evaluated, with the intent of increasing comfortability with outpatient transplant and expanding the population of eligible patients willing to receive their transplants in an outpatient setting.
Description
Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) is the delivery of multipotent donor-derived stem cells to a recipient patient. It typically involves a lengthy inpatient hospitalization (median 25.8 days). With improving availability of health services, prophylactic medications, and lower infection risk and transfusion requirements, outpatient HCT is becoming more prevalent for patients receiving reduced intensity conditioning (RIC). However, even for outpatient HCT, patients are hospitalized for a median of 8 days. Most symptoms from HCT are concentrated in the first 30-days after th…
Eligibility
- Age range
- 19+ years
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria: * Age 18+ * Seen for outpatient RIC HCT (prior to D0, generally D-6). Exclusion Criteria: * Deemed by clinical staff or research assistant (RA) to be unable to converse with an avatar, due to: severe, uncorrectable hearing or vision impairment; severe speech impairment that precludes understanding by staff (or by the avatar). * Not fluent in English.
Interventions
- Behavioralcare.coach Avatar™
care.coach Avatar™ ("avatar") is a conversational relational agent that serves as a virtual companion and appears on a tablet device as an animated pet avatar. Each avatar is supervised by a 24x7 remote team of trained human staff whose abilities are augmented by artificial intelligence (AI) and software-driven health coaching and clinical protocols for consistency, automation, and scale. This unique human-in-the-loop design enables safe, empathic, natural conversations that form the basis for trusting relations and lasting behavior change. In addition to being a companion, the avatar educates patients about their condition, helps manage symptoms, and reinforces other healthy habits. Independent studies have demonstrated improved outcomes at a reduced cost of care. A pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of care.coach Avatar™ as a psychosocial support and health coach in hospitalized HCT patients. More research is needed to assess efficacy and applications in other HCT settings.
Location
- Dana-Farber Cancer InstituteBoston, Massachusetts