Collaborators: Massachusetts General Hospital, Dell Medical School.
This study is a comparative effectiveness trial of early-integrated palliative care delivered in-person versus telehealth (via secure videoconferencing) to improve quality of life in patients with advanced lung cancer and their family caregivers. The goal is to determine whether telemedicine palliative care is equivalent to in-person palliative care in improving patient-reported quality of life.
All study participants will receive early palliative care integrated with oncology care but the modality of delivering palliative care will vary by assignment arm. Specifically, thoracic oncologists will be randomized to have their patients receive either in-person or telemedicine palliative care.
Patients in both study arms will have at least monthly palliative care visits. Patients randomized to in-person palliative care will have in-person monthly visits at the study site clinic. Patients randomized to telemedicine will have the first palliative care visit in-person and then subsequent visits via telemedicine (using secure videoconferencing).