Enhancing patient communication in oncology consultations.

OBJECTIVE:

The aim of the study is to test the effects of an online communication training to enhance cancer patients' utterance of questions, cues and concerns during oncology (follow-up) visits and their evaluation of the communication. The secondary aim of the study is to examine the feasibility of granting patients more control in the execution of a research project by asking them to collect audio recordings of their own follow-up visits.



STUDY DESIGN:

Using a randomised controlled trial, this study examines the effectiveness of an online communication training for patients diagnosed with malignant lymphoma. Patients will be randomly assigned to receive the online communication training or to receive access at the end of the study. Both intervention and control group patients will be asked to fill in questionnaires. Part of the participants will be provided with audio equipment to audiotape their consultations.

N/A

Patients will be asked to complete an online questionnaire at inclusion (QTi), before (QT0) and after (QT1) their first consultation during the year of data collection (with a maximum of 3 consultations). Subsequently, they will be asked to complete an online questionnaire after each following consultation (QT2) and three months after their last measured consultation (QT3).

The intervention is an online communication training for patients, focused on communicating with their health care provider. The goal of the training is the support patients to prepare their consultations. The training is computer-tailored to patients’ efficacy for communication with health care providers, to their communication goals, to whether they attend their consultations alone or with a companion and to their health status. The training includes information, advice and video fragments of simulated consultations to model adequate communication behaviour. Additionally, the intervention includes a QPS (question prompt sheet). Patients can print this sheet to take it to the consultation. The intervention group receives access to the online communication training one week before every consultation during the year of measurement. In this week the participants will be asked to visit the training before they enter the consultation. The participants can access the training from their own computer, at the time they prefer and as many times as they want during that week.



The control group will receive access to the program after the data-collection period has finished.