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Empathic Communication Skills (ECS) Training

NCT05456841 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 1232

Last updated 2026-03-17

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

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.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Empathic Communication Skills (ECS) training

The overall training goal of this 2.25 hour module ECS module is to enhance OCP recognition and responsiveness to lung cancer patients' empathic opportunities by communicating understanding, alleviating stigma and distress, and providing support. The ECS training also provides tools to OCPs to buffer/inoculate patients against stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors by others such that lung cancer patients who currently or formerly smoked can be given "small doses" of an opposing viewpoint (termed as "preparing patients for recurring smoking questions") and suggestions of "counterarguments" in order to make them resistant to future stigmatizing attacks by others

OTHER

Standard of Care participant interaction

Standard of Care participant interaction

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • Smita Banerjee, PhD · Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
OTHER
Masking
DOUBLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
100 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2023-04-28
Primary Completion
2026-08-31
Completion
2026-08-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Diseases
Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05456841 on ClinicalTrials.gov