Effectiveness of Lay Navigators in Meeting Cancer Patients' Non-Clinical Needs: A Pilot Study

Summary

The Stanford Cancer Center is undertaking a Transformation Initiative in order to improve the quality of care and care coordination across the continuum of care. The newest innovation is to introduce lay navigators to specified high-need patients. The larger goal of the project is to assess whether lay navigators can address non-clinical patient needs in a timely fashion and appropriately connect them with their clinical team when warranted. It is expected that proactive interaction with patients will decrease patient anxiety/stress related to their cancer and facilitate higher patient engagement and improved management of physical, social,and emotional health. For the pilot project, the smaller goal is to understand: how lay navigator time is used; the types and frequency of issues brought up by patients; resources that patients are given or referred to; type and frequency of mode of contact with patients; and patients' acceptance of navigators based on refusal. An electronic intake form will be used to collect this information so that data can be analyzed regularly to inform changes to the navigator program as needed.

Conditions

• Breast Cancer
• Gynecologic Cancer
• Neck Cancer
• Head and Neck Cancer
• Gastrointestinal Cancer
• Thoracic Cancer
• Cutaneous Tumor
• Urologic Cancer
• Neurologic Cancer
• Lymphoma
• Sarcoma
• Bone Marrow Transplant

Interventions

OTHER

Lay Navigation

Patients who are assigned to intervention will be contacted by a navigator who will explain and offer their services to the patient. Navigators focus efforts on supporting patients in self-management and in supporting non-medical needs.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Stanford University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Steve Asch, MD · Stanford University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2017-02-15

Primary Completion

2018-07-31

Completion

2018-12-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations