Author Archives: kgeorge

Internal Research Fund – Psychoeducational Support

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Title

Enhancing patient engagement in the care of adult cancer survivors and caregivers through a psychoeducational supportive care in the interior region of British Columbia. 

Background

Cancer wields an enormous health burden on Canadian society. As such, to ensure quality and continuity, it is time to codevelop psychoeducational supportive care for increasing patient engagement in care for cancer survivors and their caregivers. This research proposes to fill such a gap and to advance our knowledge how to improve patient health outcomes. As such this project will employ a community participatory action research methodology with partners, collaborators and stakeholders including cancer survivors and caregivers. Community stakeholder engagement workshops with knowledge-users  will be ongoing to strengthen our community relationships and partnerships to other regions of British Columbia (BC). 

Goals and Objectives

The goal of the proposed research is to co-develop a psychoeducational supportive care with equity-deserving groups, as key stakeholders, for ensuring a novel patient and caregiver engagement in care and in the development and validation processes of a psychoeducational supportive care. 

To obtain this goal our Research Objectives include: 

  1. Creating a series of integrated knowledge translation tools with knowledge holders and users to employ towards a pilot psychoeducational supportive care. 
  2. Developing a pilot psychoeducational supportive care that will integrate patients’ experiences with existing cancer care, with a clear intention to contextualize the experiences of equity deserving groups. 
  3. Engage and share with study results with key stakeholders to create a robust cancer care network dedicated to improvement of cancer services. 

This study will explore patient care in design and operation of cancer navigation of cancer networks. This study will discuss patients’ barriers to, and facilitators of, accessing cancer care services and proposing a quantitative modeling framework. The impact of the existing supportive cancer care services through patient engagement in care of heterogenous patient populations will be reviewed. The research development will show how pilot psychoeducational supportive care can improve collaborative practice, holistic understanding, and patient satisfaction, which may be used by healthcare professionals, providers, leaders and administrators when determining how to bridge the gap in health care inequities and how to improve cancer care through a novel approach to psychoeducational supportive care and as a result may provide positive patient-reported outcomes. A key outcome of the knowledge sharing summits will be to co-create a plan to operationalize the development of a novel approach to psychoeducational supportive care strategies and the formation of a community advisory group to continue the work of accountability for the development of the psychoeducational supportive care for equity-deserving groups in rural and remote areas in BC. The study will demonstrate the application of proposed cancer navigation framework and develop policy insights towards equity oriented care. 

Breast Cancer Society of Canada Award – Peer Navigation

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

Focus: Patient Reported Outcomes Directed Research

https://bcsc.ca/updates/breast-cancer-society-of-canada-grants-350000-to-precision-oncology-research/

Title

Enhancing peer navigation for adult cancer survivors and caregivers in interior region of British Columbia.

Aims

(1) What are the barriers to, and facilitators of, accessing cancer care services in the BC Interior region for cancer survivors and caregivers? 

(2) How effective are peer navigation in enhancing patient engagement in care and patient reported outcomes in BC’s Interior region? 

In addressing these questions, the goal of the proposed research here is to design, develop and evaluate a peer navigation with equity-deserving groups, as key stakeholders in the validation and triangulation process. 

To obtain this goal our objectives include: 

(1) Develop and evaluate a community-based intervention that will assess patients experience with a peer navigation, with clear intention to contextualize the experiences of equity deserving groups. 

(2) Engage and share with study results with key stakeholders to create a robust a peer support dedicated to improvement of peer navigation services. 

This participatory action research will translate our research findings into practice through the developing of a peer navigation using a regional community partnership in the BC Interior that can optimize preparation and integration of best practices after cancer treatment for survivors and caregivers. Expected outcomes include better management of time and efficiency regarding care coordination for patients, and improved quality of care following the development of a peer navigation.

Methodology

This study will employ a Randomized Control Trial (RCT), and a community-based participatory action research approach. We will meet these objectives by using valid measurement tools to capture: (1) cancer survivors’ experiences and reported measures of being part of a randomized control trial and community based participatory research alongside researchers and knowledge users; and (2) assessment of the effects of implementation and evaluation of the peer navigation on participants. Findings from this proposed study will guide recommendations, policy making and knowledge translation that the research team, knowledge users and decision makers will pursue.