Breast-cancer
Conditions
Keywords
complementary therapies, consultants, medical oncology, breast-cancer, education
Brief summary
The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of a consultation training program for physicians on the quality of their consultations of breast cancer patients regarding complementary medicine. We assume that the training program might enhance the communication of relevant information, empathy of the physicians or satisfaction with the consultation.
Interventions
BEHAVIORALConsultation by a trained physician
BEHAVIORALConsultation by an untrained physician
Sponsors
Deutsche Krebshilfe e.V., Bonn (Germany)
Charite University, Berlin, Germany
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose
HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
Masking
SINGLE (Subject)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
for physicians: * age \>18 years * working in a breast center of comprehensive cancer center * able to consult 10 patients within working hours * training group: able to participate in on-site-training * not primarily treating the patients that are consulted * good language skills (for consultations) * informed consent Inclusion Criteria for patients: * age \> 18 years * female * diagnosis of breast-cancer * patient in the participating center * good language skills (for consultations) * informed consent
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Effectiveness of the training program | day 1-7 | This is an exploratory study. The main aim is to evaluate the effectiveness of the training program which will be achieved using the different outcome measures defined here as secondary outcome measures. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Evaluation of each consultation session (physicians) | day 1-7 | Evaluation of the consultation session by the physicians (e.g. time spent on the consultation, difficulties, empathy etc.) |
| Empathy: CARE (patient) | day 1-7 | Empathy is assessed via an adaption of the German version of the Consultation and Relational Empathy scale (CARE) |
| Empathy: REM (patient) | day 1-7 | Empathy is assessed via an adapted version of the Rating Scales for the Assessment of Empathic Communication in Medical Interviews (REM) |
| Knowledge about complementary medicine in oncology and consultations (physicians) | day 1-7 | Questions regarding different topics relating to complementary medicine in oncology and consultations of oncology patients |
| Quality of information (patient) | day 1-7 | Quality of the information is assessed via questions developed by the study team |
| Qualitative analysis of focus groups (physicians) | day 1-7 | Focus groups will be conducted with each group of physicians (trained and untrained). They will be analyzed using qualitative methods. |
| Qualitative analysis of videotapings of consultation sessions | day 1-7 | In each group (consulations by trained and by untrained physicians) 8 consultation sessions will be videotaped and analyzed with qualitative methods. |
| Satisfaction with the consultation session (patient) | day 1-7 | Satisfaction with the consultation session is assessed via questions developed by the study team. |
Countries
Germany
Outcome results
None listed