Pilot Study of the SPaRK (Supportive and Palliative Care Review Kit) Model of Care for Advanced Cancer Patients Who Have an Unplanned Admission to Singapore General Hospital

Advanced cancer patients have a poor quality of life and a high rate of unplanned hospital admissions. Palliative care has been shown to improve patient outcomes such as quality of life and symptom burden. Our long-term aim is to study the effect of Supportive and Palliative Care Review Kit (SPaRK) - a novel model of early palliative care in the acute hospital inpatient setting. To this end, we propose a pilot study that will provide the necessary information for the planning of a subsequent larger scale Phase III trial of SPaRK. The specific aims of this pilot study are: 1) to estimate the recruitment rate and ability of advanced cancer patients to complete the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General (FACT-G) questionnaire, which measures health-related quality of life (QOL) in the four domains of physical well-being, social/family well-being, emotional well-being, and functional well-being, 2) to obtain a tentative estimate of the effect size of the SPaRK model of care on change in patient QOL over 6 days, 3) to explore the responsiveness to change of FACT-G over 3 days and 4) to explore views of healthcare professionals and stakeholders on SPaRK as a model of integrated palliative care and oncology care service delivery. In the short term, the results from this study will be used to plan a larger scale Phase III study of SPaRK. In the long term, a resource-efficient and effective model of care needs to be developed for the aging population and rising palliative care needs of patients. If successful, this pilot study will lead on to the testing of SPaRK, which does not rely wholly on specialist palliative care manpower, but involves both specialists and non-specialists working together to provide palliative care, and hence can be feasibly scaled up across institutions and extended to non-cancer patients.

Sex

All

Minimum age

21 Years

Inclusion Criteria:

* Has an unplanned admission to SGH under the care of the inpatient DMO Lung team
* Has a cancer diagnosis of stage 4 solid tumor
* Has capacity to give written informed consent to participate in the study (for patients who complete the patient questionnaires)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Unable to complete self-administration of the FACT-G questionnaire