Researchers at Nova Scotia Health are conducting a study to support breast and colorectal cancer patients’ and survivors’ experiences with follow-up care. Follow-up care is the care you receive after finishing cancer treatment to look for recurrences or new cancers, and to address your ongoing needs and concerns. These may be physical needs such as ongoing fatigue, pain, or nerve problems, or emotional needs such as fear of recurrence or depression. Previous research in this area has concluded that there are a number of problems with how follow-up care is currently being provided and there is an urgent need to improve the delivery of follow-up care to ensure that patients’ needs are being met. We know there is no-one-size fits all approach to delivering care and we need different care approaches to care that are matched to a person’s needs after treatment. Therefore, utilizing results from previous investigations, we designed a virtual self-management follow-up care application.
The supported self-management application is a mobile app designed to help cancer survivors navigate follow-up care and streamline access to resources alongside their usual care. The application will be used as an information hub and self-management tool alongside usual care, to address the physical, psychosocial, and practical needs of breast and colorectal cancer survivors.
The purpose of this study is to test the feasibility of implementing the virtual intervention at two cancer centers in Atlantic Canada and gather feedback regarding the intervention from cancer survivors and health care providers.
You are eligible to participate in this study if:
• live in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick
• are at least 18 years of age in Nova Scotia or 19 years of age in New Brunswick
• have been previously diagnosed with stage I-III breast or colorectal cancer and
• have completed primary treatment for your cancer (surgery and/or adjuvant systemic or radiation therapy) 6 months – 5 years ago
Participation in this study is voluntary and would involve access to the virtual application for six months. Participants will be prompted to complete a 15-minute questionnaire on the application before, once during,
and after access to the intervention. Select participants may be invited to partake in a one-time interview carried out using video-conferencing technology. The interview will be approximately 45 minutes in length,
and participants will be asked questions about their experience using the application and their opinion on its potential implementation. The Research Assistant will work with you to arrange a date and time for the
interview and will provide you with information needed to attend the video conference session. All interviews will be video, and audio recorded.
Before providing access to the application, the research team member will discuss the study with you, respond to any questions or concerns you may have, and confirm that you are still interested in participating.
If you have questions about this study or would like to participate, please contact:
Caroline Hovey
Email: cr344200@dal.ca