Clinical trial · Observational
Planning for Future Care With Patients With Advanced Cancer
Planning for Future Care With Patients With Advanced Cancer: Examining the Feasibility of Using the Trajectory Touchpoint Technique for Advance Care Planning.
- Source
- ClinicalTrials.gov
- Retrieved
- Sep 8, 2026
- Layer
- normalized (units and labels harmonized; values unchanged)
- Run
- ING-CLINICALTRIALS-20260908-000001
Summary
Brief summary (as posted)
Advance Care Planning (ACP) is a process where patients (and their families if appropriate) discuss with their doctors and nurses what may happen as their illness progresses, including how they (and their family) would like to be supported and cared for. The discussion of expectations and choices for care can then be formally recorded and used to guide and inform future care. Well documented benefits of ACP include empowering patients and their families to better understand available choices and make informed decisions regarding future care; This ensures care is based on what is important to that patient (and their family) and prepares all for the end of life. However, few people with a life limiting illness (such as cancer) have an ACP. Patients and families often find future and end of life care a difficult subject to discuss, as do doctors/nurses, who fear upsetting patients and families and who may have limited training/experience in how to prompt and record ACP discussions. This project aims to overcome the barriers in discussing ACP by using the Trajectory Touchpoint Technique. The technique utilises a range of existing service evaluation and service design methods found in "service management" and "design systems". Rich pictures are used in the form of cartoons on an electronic tablet or printed card, to enable patients/families to lead discussions. The images are simple and enable people to raise sensitive and potentially distressing topics at a pace they are comfortable with, rather than responding to numerous pre-determined questions. The technique was originally designed to explore the experiences of patients (and their families) of Hospice Care and has been successfully used in over 200 interviews, demonstrating an ability to sensitively facilitate difficult conversations whilst enabling rich and detailed discussion.
Conditions
Conditions (1)
Free-text conditions as registered, with the CancerIndex entity they were reconciled to and the match type.
| Condition (as posted) | Mapped entity | Match | Confidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advance Care Planning | — | UNRESOLVED | — |
Interventions
Interventions (1)
| Intervention | Type | Mapped drug | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advance Care Plan with Trajectory Touchpoint Technique | Other | — | UNRESOLVED |
Design
Arms and outcomes
Arms (1)
- label
- Patient/family Participant
- description
- Advance Care Plan with the Trajectory Touchpoint Technique
- interventionNames
- Other: Advance Care Plan with Trajectory Touchpoint Technique
Primary outcomes (1)
- measure
- Interview question: please share in your own words your opinion of the ACP discussion
- timeFrame
- within 72 hours of consent.
- description
- Participant is asked to join a 1:1 interview discussion. VERBAL DIALOGUE NO SCALE they talk about their ACP. Thematic Analysis will be conducted on the interview transcript to understand the common themes raised throughout the different interviews.
Eligibility
Eligibility (as posted)
- Sex
- All
- Minimum age
- 18 Years
Show eligibility criteria text
Inclusion Criteria: * Cared for on the Academic Palliative Care Unit * Diagnosis of Cancer * No Advance Care Plan (or ACP needs updating) * Able to provide informed consent (has capacity) Exclusion Criteria: * Absence of cancer * Has current ACP * Deemed to unwell by the APCU MDT * Unable to provide informed consent
References
Publications (0)
Data not yet available