NCT06564233

Supportive Care Intervention for Outpatient Stem Cell Transplant Patients

A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Avatar-based Supportive Care Intervention for Patients Undergoing Outpatient Stem Cell Transplantation

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 90 (estimated)
• Sponsor: Victor Wang · Industry
• Sex: All
• Age: 19 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The overall goal of this study is to assess the efficacy of the care.coach Avatar™ in improving anxiety and quality of life for patients undergoing outpatient transplant. After care.coach Avatar™ content and scheduling ("digital intervention" or "program") has been optimized for outpatient allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT), a randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted of the digital versus usual supportive care program for outpatient HCT recipients. Potential improvements in anxiety and quality of life will be evaluated, with the intent of increasing comfortability with outpatient transplant and expanding the population of eligible patients willing to receive their transplants in an outpatient setting.

Detailed description

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) is the delivery of multipotent donor-derived stem cells to a recipient patient. It typically involves a lengthy inpatient hospitalization (median 25.8 days). With improving availability of health services, prophylactic medications, and lower infection risk and transfusion requirements, outpatient HCT is becoming more prevalent for patients receiving reduced intensity conditioning (RIC). However, even for outpatient HCT, patients are hospitalized for a median of 8 days. Most symptoms from HCT are concentrated in the first 30-days after the transplant, and these must be better addressed to optimize benefits from outpatient HCT. For patients undergoing HCT, incidence of psychological consequences is higher than in other cancer health states; potential psychological symptoms include stress, anxiety, anger, depression, insomnia, and loneliness. Non-pharmacological approaches for improving quality of life (QOL) and reducing distress among HCT patients include psychoeducational, exercise, and mindfulness interventions. Although post-HCT changes in lifestyle are challenging, the Health Belief Model and Prochaska's Transtheoretical model of change posit that patients preparing for HCT day 0 (notated as D0), when they receive the stem cell infusion, would be highly motivated to learn about psychosocial supports and activities given their readiness for change and taking action. This presents an ideal timeframe for studying a psychosocial health coaching intervention.

Conditions

• Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation
• Cancer

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	care.coach Avatar™	care.coach Avatar™ ("avatar") is a conversational relational agent that serves as a virtual companion and appears on a tablet device as an animated pet avatar. Each avatar is supervised by a 24x7 remote team of trained human staff whose abilities are augmented by artificial intelligence (AI) and software-driven health coaching and clinical protocols for consistency, automation, and scale. This unique human-in-the-loop design enables safe, empathic, natural conversations that form the basis for trusting relations and lasting behavior change. In addition to being a companion, the avatar educates patients about their condition, helps manage symptoms, and reinforces other healthy habits. Independent studies have demonstrated improved outcomes at a reduced cost of care. A pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of care.coach Avatar™ as a psychosocial support and health coach in hospitalized HCT patients. More research is needed to assess efficacy and applications in other HCT settings.

Timeline

• Start date: 2024-10-21
• Primary completion: 2026-09-20
• Completion: 2026-11-29
• First posted: 2024-08-21
• Last updated: 2026-03-06

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States