Communication in cancer care

We cannot provide detailed information about our study, as this might influence participants' outcomes. Please do contact us if you need further information.

We can say the following: Communication is one of the cornerstones of medicine. Especially when patients are confronted with a serious life-limiting illness such as advanced cancer, and when making difficult treatment decisions affecting quality and quantity of life, communication is of utmost importance. We, however, do not always know what good communication constitutes of. In this project we will determine whether specific communication can improve patient-reported outcomes in the setting of advanced (breast)cancer.

To do so, a scripted video-vignette study will be conducted. Using a 2x2 design four role-played video-vignettes are developed of a consultation between a breast cancer patient in the advanced stage of the disease and an oncologist. In the different vignettes, all communication is held equal but only 2 specific communication elements are varied (absent/present). This makes it possible to determine the causal effects of the manipulated communication on patient outcomes. Participants (both women with and without cancer) will participate in the online study. They will watch one video and are instructed to place themselves in the shoes of the video-patient. Pre- and post- video they will complete several questionnaires.

We will test the effect of specific communication interventions and hypothesize that specific interventions will lead to better participant-reported outcomes. We cannot provide detailed information about our hypothesis upfront, as this might influence participants' outcomes. Please do contact us if you need further information.

Pre- and post video questionnaires will be completed.

We cannot provide detailed information about our interventions upfront, as this might influence participants' outcomes. Please do contact us if you need further information.