Grant Number:	1R01CA300233-01A1 Interpret this number
Primary Investigator:	Epstein, Andrew
Organization:	Sloan-Kettering Inst Can Research
Project Title:	The Person Intervention: Using Patient Portals to Elicit Essential Patient-Reported Elements of Communication with Clinicians Supporting Person-Centered Oncologic Care
Fiscal Year:	2026

PROJECT SUMMARY Person-centered communication with clinicians that helps patients to both “know” about their illness and “feel known” as individuals is an indispensable component of high-quality cancer care. In this process, patients are encouraged to convey their personhood (uniqueness/intrinsic worth), communication needs, and core health- related values (what is most important/concerning to them), while clinicians bring expertise and empathy to individualize the care plan. Person-centered communication supports shared decision-making and ongoing care from the time of diagnosis, particularly for patients with advanced disease. However, implementing person- centered communication consistently, efficiently, and effectively is a critical challenge in outpatient oncology clinics with increasing visit volume and patient complexity. We have developed an innovative intervention leveraging digital technology to facilitate patient-reporting to clinicians of key information about personhood, illness/treatment understanding, and life priorities, and support effective person-centered communication. Specifically, our “PERSON” intervention uses Patient portals to Elicit essential patient-Reported elements of communication Supporting person-centered ONcologic care. This intervention comprises 3 main components, all automated and scalable: 1) portal-enabled assessment (14-item PERSON questionnaire) asking patients about information preferences; illness/treatment understanding, and personhood/values; 2) delivery of patient responses to the oncology team; and 3) support for clinicians to discuss responses with patients and document in the electronic health record (EHR). The PERSON process is repeated at 4-month intervals to allow for iteration of patients’ needs and priorities. We propose a hybrid type 2 study including a stepped wedge, cluster- randomized controlled trial involving oncology clinics across 4 sites in 3 centers that examines both the implementation and effectiveness of the PERSON intervention in patients with the most common solid tumor cancers. Evaluation of implementation will involve all patients who are eligible/not excluded, whereas evaluation of effectiveness will focus specifically on patients with advanced cancer. Specific Aims are to: 1) identify adoption rates, facilitators, barriers and contextual factors related to patient/clinician uptake of the portal-based PERSON intervention. Our primary implementation outcome will be intervention adoption by patients (response to portal- enabled PERSON questionnaire); 2) determine impact of PERSON on clinical and utilization outcomes. Our primary outcome of effectiveness will be patient-reported clinician quality of communication at 6 weeks after the patient is provided the first portal questionnaire. By conducting our study across a spectrum of sites among patients with a heterogeneity of cancers, demographics, and digital access and literacy, and also evaluating an adapted PERSON intervention in Spanish, we will optimize generalizability of the results, while analyses will take account of key co-variates. Study findings will be synthesized in an implementation blueprint to facilitate and accelerate this scalable intervention’s translation into practice and broad dissemination.




The Challenges of Caregiving-Isn't It Time We Stopped Just Admiring the Problem?
Authors: Walsh L.E. , Morrison R.S. , Applebaum A.J. .
Source: Journal Of Palliative Medicine, 2026-07-29 00:00:00.0; , p. 10966218261474590.
EPub date: 2026-07-29 00:00:00.0.
PMID: 42528003
Related Citations