m-Palliative Care Link: Improving Palliative Care for Late Stage Tanzanian Cancer Patients

NCT03634696 | Completed

• 2 other identifiers: 1040841R21TW010190
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 98
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

This work aims to improve late-stage cancer patients' access to high quality, patient-centered symptom assessment and control via the creation, field test, and outcomes assessment of a scalable mobile application (mPalliative Care Link; mPCL)-built around a locally-validated Palliative care Outcome Scale- that links a limited pool of existing Tanzanian palliative care specialists with patients, lay/family caregivers, and local health workers.

Conditions

Cancer

Keywords

Late-stage; Palliative care; Novel technology; Communication

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Pain control

  APCA African Palliative Outcome Scale. Pain scale from 0-5 (low to high).

  Up to 4 months

Secondary Outcomes (1)

• Application utility

  six week survey

Study Arms (2)

Field test participants

EXPERIMENTAL

Late-stage adult cancer patients seeking care at Ocean Road Cancer Center, consenting to participate in mPCL application field test

Other: mPCL

Control participants

ACTIVE COMPARATOR

Late-stage adult cancer patients seeking care at Ocean Road Cancer Center, consenting to serve as controls for mPCL field test

Other: Usual Care

Interventions

mPCL OTHER

Smart phone application to support palliative care among late-stage cancer patients

Field test participants

Usual Care OTHER

Usual care through OCRI palliative care clinic

Control participants

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 21 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Patients will be eligible for field test if they meet the following criteria:
• Are ORCI inpatients with untreatable, late stage cancer
• Age 21 years or older
• Willing to enroll
• Able to understand and sign informed consent document
• Have four-month life expectancy or greater based on specialist assessment
• Have caregivers available/willing to support outpatient care for duration of field test
• Have a local health worker to support their outpatient care who consents to participate in the field test (i.e., partner with palliative care specialists for the duration of field test)
• Live within 50 km of ORCI for access to medications and study nurse support
• Have experience using a mobile device as measured by past cell phone ownership
• Have completed primary school

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Susan Miesfeldt: lead
• MaineHealth: collaborator
• National Institutes of Health (NIH): collaborator
• Dimagi Inc.: collaborator
• Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences: collaborator
• Fogarty International Center of the National Institute of Health: collaborator

Study Sites (1)

Ocean Road Cancer Institute

Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Neoplasms; Communication

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Behavior

Study Officials

• Susan Miesfeldt, MD

  MaineHealth

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: Principal Investigator

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 10, 2018
• First Posted: August 16, 2018
• Study Start: June 15, 2018
• Primary Completion: August 9, 2019
• Study Completion: July 20, 2021
• Last Updated: October 14, 2021

Record last verified: 2021-10

Data Sharing

• IPD Sharing: Will not share

Locations

TA (1)