The effect of weekly specialist palliative care teleconsultations in patients with advanced cancer –a randomized clinical trial

BACKGROUND: Teleconsultation seems to be a promising intervention for providing palliative care to home-dwelling patients; however, its effect on clinically relevant outcome measures remains largely unexplored. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine whether weekly teleconsultations from a hospital-based specialist palliative care consultation team (SPCT) improved patient-experienced symptom burden compared to “care as usual”. Secondary objectives were to determine the effects of these teleconsultations on unmet palliative care needs, continuity of care, hospital admissions, satisfaction with teleconsultations, and the burden experienced by informal caregivers. METHODS: Seventy-four home-dwelling patients diagnosed with advanced cancer were recruited from outpatient clinics of a tertiary university hospital and from regional home care organizations between May 2011 and January 2015. Participants were randomized to receive weekly, prescheduled teleconsultations with an SPCT-member (intervention group), or to receive “care as usual” (control group), for a period of 12 weeks. The primary outcome of this study was: patient-experienced symptom burden indicated by the following: (1) Total Distress Score (defined as the sum of all nine subscales of the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System) and (2) the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Mixed models were used to test for differences between the two groups. RESULTS: The Total Distress Score became significantly higher in the intervention group than in the control group, reaching significance at week 12 (adjusted difference at week 12: 6.90 points, 95% CI, 0.17 to 13.63; P = 0.04). The adjusted anxiety scores were higher in the intervention group than in the control group (estimate effect: 1.40; 95% CI, 0.14 to 2.55; P = 0.03). No difference was found between the groups in adjusted depression scores (estimate effect: 0.30; 95% CI, −1.39 to 1.99; P = 0.73) or in secondary outcome measures. CONCLUSIONS: Adding weekly teleconsultations to usual palliative care leads to worse reported symptom scores among home-dwelling patients with advanced cancer. Possible explanations for these findings include excess attention on symptoms and (potential) suffering, the supply-driven care model for teleconsultations used in this trial, and the already high level of specialist palliative care provided to the control group in this study. TRIAL REGISTRATION: “The Netherlands National Trial Register”, NTR2817, prospectively registered: March 21, 2011.