Clinical Trials

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of a new shared decision support tool. Using feedback from patients, caregivers, and clinicians, a paper and video decision aid has been made to help people who are offered DT LVAD (a partial artificial heart—so-called destination therapy left ventricular assist device) make this most difficult of decisions. Although patients may live longer with a DT LVAD, it poses many risks, including stroke, serious infection, and bleeding.Unlike the information that is now available, our decision aid focuses on options, fears, and the needs of caregivers, is balanced, and is paired with training for doctors and nurses on how to best talk about DT LVAD.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a health coaching intervention on the stress and burden of caregivers of patients awaiting heart or lung transplant.

Hypotheses:  Caregivers will have traits and behaviors pre-transplant that will predict caregiver readiness, quality of life, and transplant recipient outcomes. Specifically, thoracic pre-transplant caregivers report stress, symptoms of anxiety or depression, and perceive high caregiver burden. These factors may be amenable to pre-transplant intervention to improve overall patient and caregiver outcomes.

Aims, purpose, or objectives:  We will conduct a pilot trial to test whether caregivers of heart and lung transplant candidates who receive wellness coaching will experience improvement in caregiver-related distress. We will also explore the relationship between caregiving and factors such as uncertainty, resilience, stress level, and affect.

The primary purpose of this study is to determine feasibility as measured by consent of at least 25% of eligible patients and their caregivers (defined as those who met with the study coordinator), adherence (75% of the enrolled participants will complete at least 3 of the 4 Resilient Living sessions), and acceptability (measured by ) of the delivery of the Resilient Living intervention to patients with advanced cancer and their caregivers.

The purpose of this study is to get input from a focus group to understand the interests and perceptions of patients, family members, and caregivers about their role for engagement in the conducting of research related to their medical conditions.

This randomized phase III trial studies how well early palliative care integrated with standard care works compared with standard care alone in improving the quality of life of patients and their family caregivers. Palliative care focuses on improving the quality of life for patients with advanced diseases and their family members by providing support for relief of physical symptoms, emotional and psychological support, and counseling. Patients who receive palliative care along with their regular care at an earlier time in their disease may experience fewer emotional and physical issues from their cancer. This may also improve the quality of life of family caregivers.

The purpose of this study is to develop digital, personal narrative stories about hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) with a sample of HCT caregivers. 

The proposed research will use a double-blind randomized controlled design to pilot test a model for how stories shared by a panel of HCT survivors impact the psychosocial well-being of the digital stories (DS) intervention condition of 55 patients who recently underwent HCT and their respective caregivers compared with 55 people in an information control (IC) condition and their caregivers (total 220 participants; N=110 per condition). Participants, recruited from the Mayo Clinic Arizona Cancer Center, will be randomly assigned to one of two conditions: the DS intervention or the IC video condition. Participants will questionnaires at baseline (T1), after the 4-week intervention (T2), and 3 months (100 days) later (T3).

The purpose of this study is to determine if use of an educational video simulating common CPAP-related problems will increase compliance among new CPAP users.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the immediate and long-term effects of improved respiratory function on local tissue oxygen delivery and cerebral circulation, by comparing control and training groups.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the trajectory of loss and grief over 12 months, the risk factors associated with high levels of pre-loss grief, and the preliminary effectiveness of ART for treatment of high levels of pre-loss grief among family caregivers (FCG) of persons nearing the end of life.