Patients report better experiences of care, can experience longer survival, and use less hospital services when they have access to a specialist cancer nurse compared to people who do not receive care from a specialist nurse.
In Australia, there is considerable variation in access to specialist cancer nurses, especially for patients diagnosed with rare or less common cancers, such as pancreatic cancer.
Our research team, along with patients and carers with a lived experience of pancreatic cancer and cancer healthcare professionals, co-designed the PANConnect (Patient and Nurse Connect) model of care. PANConnect is a nurse-led intervention that provides pancreatic cancer patients with access to timely symptom management and emotional care via telehealth.
We are conducting this randomised controlled trial to test whether adding PANConnect to usual care improves pain and symptom burden among patients with pancreatic cancer, compared to usual care alone. We will also assess whether PANConnect improves patient and carer emotional distress, unmet needs, financial wellbeing, and reduces health service use. The trial will be conducted at eight health services across Victoria, and eligible patients affected by pancreatic cancer receiving care at these services will be invited to take part.
The PANConnect study is a randomised controlled trial. This means that patients who take part get allocated by chance to either usual care by their treating team, or usual care plus PANConnect.
Patients who are allocated to usual care plus PANConnect receive weekly telehealth consultations with a specialist cancer nurse (the PANConnect nurse) over 12 weeks, in addition to usual care by their treating team. The PANConnect nurse asks about any symptoms or unmet needs that the patient or carer has, and provides advice to help address these, or makes referrals to other services as needed. Importantly, a summary of each telehealth consultation is provided to the patient’s treating team, and any urgent concerns or issues are communicated back in real-time. The PANConnect nurse also sends details of any referrals made to the patient’s treating team so that everyone involved in the patient’s care shares the same information.
Patients or their carers can also contact the PANConnect nurse in-between telehealth consultations for any queries or concerns that they may have.
Features of PANConnect
1Clinical Management Pathways developed as part of the PROpatient trial, and used with perission from PROpatient trial investigators
The primary objective of the PANConnect trial is to test the impact of PANConnect in addition to usual care on pain and symptom burden for patients with pancreatic cancer compared to usual care alone.
Secondary objectives are:
- To assess the effectiveness of PANConnect plus usual care, compared to usual care alone, on addressing unmet needs and reducing patient and carer emotional distress.
- To assess the effectiveness of PANConnect plus usual care, compared to usual care alone, on improving patient financial wellbeing.
- To assess the impact of PANConnect on healthcare resource use, and explore how cost effective it is.
- To explore the implementability (i.e., the acceptability and feasibility) of PANConnect.
- To develop an implementation package to enable PANConnect to be scaled across sites nationally and applied to other rare and less common cancer populations, should it prove to be effective.
Project details
Sponsor, Funding, Trial Sites and Timeline
Sponsor
- Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
Funding
- The Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF)
Trial Sites
The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre is the trial coordinating centre. We will recruit patients affected by pancreatic cancer from the following services:
- Austin Health
- Bendigo Health
- Border Medical Oncology
- Jessie McPherson Private Hospital
- Monash Health
- Peninsula Health
- St Vincent’s Public Hospital, Melbourne
- Warringal Private Hospital
Timeline
Recruitment to the PANConnect trial is anticipated to begin in January 2025, and will take approximately 18 months. The trial will run for three years.
Coordinating Principal Investigator
Professor Mei Krishnasamy
The PANConnect Team
Dr Meabh Cullinane, Project Manager
Lisa Brady, PANConnect Nurse
Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more details about the PANConnect trial.
