Smith Receives AOSW Award

Smith Receives AOSW Award

Kudos to Sophia Smith, associate professor, and her entire team on receiving an award for her Association of Oncology Social Work (AOSW) application entitled "Usability of a Mobile App for CLL Survivors." This award is for a one-year period with a start date of November 21, 2019. The award is for $90,000.

Mobile App for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) Patients      

Cancer patients report with many physical and emotional symptoms that cause distress. And, new treatments allow cancer patients to live longer, intensifying the need to manage the burdensome symptoms and distress that result from cancer and its treatment. Many symptoms go underestimated and unreported, resulting in unmet needs and high distress. A recent study from Dr. Basch and colleagues (2017) has shown that the systematic collection of symptom information through patient reported outcomes is associated with increased quality of life and treatment toleration, decreased emergency department use, and increased one year and overall survival. While we know that improved symptom reporting including distress management is associated with improved outcomes, less is known about patient and clinician preferences for communication around distress management.

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) patients are noted amongst cancer patients to have a high symptom burden (e.g., fatigue, anxiety) and low quality of life, providing an important target for intervention. When CLL patients are clinically stable, they may only be seen by their medical provider every 3-6 months. However, they may have significant anxiety about potential progression of disease. Having an app that allows them to self-monitor distress and alert their clinicians may facilitate shared decision-making. For example, alerts could trigger follow-up appointments or referrals to support services. Therefore, the CLL community is an ideal population for our pilot, which aims to: (1) Explore the communication needs and preferences of CLL patients and clinicians around distress management. Through 30-60-minute semi-structured interviews, we will explore patients’ and clinicians’ perceptions and preferences concerning distress management and identify barriers and opportunities to enhance the process for both parties. The patient interview guide will focus on the symptom experience and related needs, and communication barriers and opportunities.  The clinician interview guide will focus on their communication preferences for delivering and receiving information about their patients’ symptoms and distress. Interviews will be tape recorded and transcribed. Our team is experienced in qualitative analyses and will analyze verbatim interview transcripts using content analysis. An inductively developed codebook will be applied across all transcripts. The codes will be refined and organized into themes through group discussions. Insights gained will guide the app development in Aim 2.

(2) Develop and test a prototype app that facilitates communication between CLL patients and clinicians around distress management. Insights gained in Aim 1 will guide the development of the CLL distress management app. Information relevant to CLL symptoms, psychosocial support, and communication will be reflected in the new prototype app. Functions such as graphing distress scores and emailing results to clinicians to initiate referral to psychosocial and financial counseling and psychiatry are planned. National recruitment will be facilitated through patient groups such as the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. Usability and acceptability testing will be conducted with participants, and it is anticipated that a manuscript will be submitted for publication.

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