Empathic Communication Skills (ECS) Training

Recruiting now · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Lung Cancer

In brief

Research indicates that perceived stigma within medical encounters is prevalent and problematic for lung cancer patients' well-being and quality of cancer care. Promoting empathic communication appears to be a potentially effective intervention target to help reduce patients' perceptions of stigma within clinical encounters; however, no formal trainings exist that focus on teaching empathic communication to oncology care providers (OCPs). Building upon favorable findings from a prior R21 (R21CA202793) and the importance of developing interventions to address lung cancer stigma, our goal is to conduct a national trial of empathic communication skills (ECS) training to facilitate improvements in the medical and psychosocial care of patients through de-stigmatizing interactions with OCPs for patients diagnosed with lung cancer.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT05456841

Run by

Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

People needed

1232

Starts

2023-04-28

Expected to finish

2026-08-31

Last updated by the study team

2026-07-23

Who can join

Age: 18 and older, up to 100. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Site Eligibility
• Employs at least 15 FTE OCPs (i.e., oncologists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants) as per self report
• Reports a clinic volume of at least 20 new lung cancer patients per month as per self report
• OCP Participant Eligibility
• OCPs who are thoracic oncology physicians (radiologists, medical oncologists, pulmonologists, and surgeons), NPs, or PAs and currently treating lung cancer patients, as per self-report;
• OCP conducts consultations with lung cancer patients, as per self-report;
• OCP sees at least 1 lung cancer patient per week, as per self-report;
• Patient Eligibility
• Patient under the care of a participating OCP as per self report;
• English and/or Spanish speaking;
• In general, which language do you prefer to receive your medical care, English/Spanish/both English and Spanish Equally?
• If English, treat as fluent in English, no additional language questions
• If Spanish, treat as fluent in Spanish, no additional language questions
• If both English and Spanish equally, ask the follow-up questions and go with whichever language is endorsed as best. If endorsed equally, assign to category patient prefers
• How well do you speak English? Not at all/ Not well/Well/Very well
• How well do you speak Spanish? Not at all/Not well/Well/Very well
• Is at least 18 years of age as per self report;
• Has a history of suspicious lung mass or confirmed lung cancer diagnosis, as per clinician judgment or medical record note;
• Is a former or current smoking as per self report;
• Has had no more than 10 prior visits with the participating OCP, as per the medical record and/or self report

You may not qualify if…

• Patient Exclusion
• Individuals of impaired decision-making capacity as per a clinician's judgment or as documented in the EMR.
• Site and OCP Exclusion
• None

Where it is running

• Chesapeake Regional Healthcare (Data Collection Only) — Chesapeake, Virginia, United States (enrolling)
• BAPTIST ALLIANCE - MCI (Data Collection Only) — Miami, Florida, United States (enrolling)
• Advocate Health Care Network — Libertyville, Illinois, United States (enrolling)
• Roswell Park Cancer Institute (Data Collection Only) — Buffalo, New York, United States (enrolling)
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (All Protocol Activities) — New York, New York, United States (enrolling)
• University of Pennsylvania (Data Collection Only) — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States (enrolling)
• Fox Chase Cancer Center (Data Collection Only) — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States (enrolling)
• Hackensack Meridian Health (Data collection only) — Hackensack, New Jersey, United States (enrolling)
• University of Kentucky (Data Collection Only) — Lexington, Kentucky, United States
• Munson Healthcare (Data Collection Only) — Traverse City, Michigan, United States
• Providence St. Joseph Health (Data Collection Only) — Irvine, California, United States
• Virtua Health (Data Collection Only) — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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