The study examined digital coaching as a viable intervention for patients with multiple myeloma before and after their stem cell transplantation procedures.
Leading patient engagement platform Pack Health today announced the publication of their recent study, “Digital Life Coaching During Stem Cell Transplantation: Development and Usability Study” in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) Formative Research. Pack Health collaborated with the University of California at San Francisco (UCSF) Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center on this research. The study detailed in the publication examined digital life coaching (DLC) as a viable intervention for patients with multiple myeloma before and after their autologous stem cell transplantation (SCT) procedures, as well as how it would affect their overall quality of life.
Benefits of digital life coaching for patients with multiple myeloma include the ability to expand support to patients beyond the healthcare setting and into the communities where they are managing their condition. To evaluate the feasibility of DLC for this study, patients received 16 weeks of access to personalized digital coaching with a Health Advisor from Pack Health. The Health Advisors communicated with study participants via email, SMS text messaging, or phone call, beginning five days prior to starting SCT. Patient data was collected weekly for the first eight weeks and biweekly for the remainder of the study period.
Feasibility of coaching exceeded the threshold of 68% with 11 of the 15 study participants who underwent the SCT procedure consistently engaged with digital life coaching intervention throughout the study period (73%). In addition, participants completed 94% of electronic patient-reported outcome (ePRO) assessments, providing key insights into participants’ mental and physical quality of life which was at its lowest at week 2 following SCT. Of note, 69% (9/13) of patients reported elevated distress at baseline which decreased to 31% (4/13) at week 11.
“Demonstrating the feasibility of DLC for individual patients undergoing SCT is an important step in further testing and developing this offering and evaluating its outcomes”, says Kelly Brassil, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, Director of Clinical Research at Pack Health, “This randomized controlled trial with UCSF that is currently in active enrollment is evaluating how digital coaching may improve outcomes and enhance support for individuals with multiple myeloma.”
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