NCT05510934

Shared Care Thyroid Cancer Follow-up Utilizing Thyroid Cancer Assessment Reminder System (TCARS) Study - A Pilot Study.

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: —
• Study type: Observational
• Enrollment: 60 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Nova Scotia Health Authority · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

This study aims to assess the feasibility of a shared-care model for low-risk differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) patients, primary care practitioners (PCPs) and the tertiary care center utilizing a digital health-based thyroid cancer assessment reminder system (TCARS) in Medable with an expedited referral to specialists for rapid assessment in case of a concern of recurrence.

Detailed description

Low risk differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) is being increasingly diagnosed and although its overall survival is excellent, lifelong follow-up is needed due to the risk of ongoing health challenges and the cancer recurring. While it is not feasible to follow this growing number of patients in specialist centers due to limited resources, recent studies have suggested that simply discharging them to their PCP is not ideal because many PCPs do not feel confident in managing various aspects of DTC. More importantly, a large number of patients in Nova Scotia do not have regular access to PCPs and are thus followed by walk-in clinics or nurse practitioners.The optimal approach would therefore be, to establish a shared care follow-up model including participation from patients, primary care practitioners (PCPs) and specialists. In this study, the feasibility of a shared care follow-up strategy involving patients, PCPs and specialists that uses an automated reminder system will be tested. This strategy will be compared to standard specialist only follow-up. The study population comprises 60 low risk adult DTC patients who will be randomly allocated to either Shared-care or Control group on a 1:1 basis (30 patients each). The main objectives of this study is to: 1. Develop a digital health-based thyroid cancer assessment reminder system alerting patients and PCPs of patients' forthcoming appointment and guidelines. 2. Establish an expedited referral pathway to tertiary care for rapid assessment of patients discharged to PCPs in case of a risk of recurrence. 3. Identify the feasibility of the Shared-care model. 4. Compare the completion of the clinical assessments between Shared-care and Control Groups. 5. Compare patient and provider satisfaction and acceptability between Shared-care and Control Groups. 6. Compare PCP confidence in dealing with DTC before and after study completion.

Conditions

• Low Risk Differentiated Thyroid Cancer

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Shared-care model	A Shared care follow-up strategy involving patients, PCPs and specialists that uses an automated reminder system (TCARS).

Timeline

• Start date: 2022-09-30
• Primary completion: 2025-09-30
• Completion: 2025-12-30
• First posted: 2022-08-22
• Last updated: 2024-08-21

Locations

1 site across 1 country: Canada