Download Slide 1

PROSPEC: A patient-physician
communication study
PRESENTED BY: CHRISTINA LOMAX
Background
 PROSPEC: Prostate Screening: Project to Encourage
Communication


A part of the Center for Population Health and Health
Disparities (CPHHD)
Funded by the NIH
 Quasi-experimental study that evaluates causes of
racial disparities in terms of knowledge of prostate
cancer and prostate cancer screening
Goals and Objectives
 Study the relation between different predictive
factors of outcomes of a screening discussion
 Assess how those factors explain racial disparities in
prostate cancer outcomes
 Spread information to at-risk populations and
community
Significance of PROSPEC
 Prostate cancer screening (PCS) controversial type of
preventive medicine


May reduce quality of life
Unable to determine reduction in mortality
 Better communication between patient and
physician

Shared responsibility
 Acknowledge and alleviate racial disparities in
screening practices
Methods
 Individual semi-structured community interviews to
help create intervention
 Developed interactive and computerized
intervention
 Focus groups, clinical encounters, and individual
semi-structured interviews to evaluate intervention
 Surveys conducted with patients during clinical
encounter pre and post intervention

Clinical encounter audio-recorded
Community-Based Interviews
 Qualitative data collected from:
 29 men (ages 45 – 79)
 No history of prostate cancer
 African-American or Caucasian
 Semi-structured interview with questions about:
 Personal health care practices
 Attitudes and beliefs towards health care, prostate cancer
and prostate cancer screening
 Preferred intervention styles
Systems Model of Clinical Preventive Care
Pre vs. Post Intervention Interviews
 Edward S. Cooper Practice of General Internal
Medicine: 5 physicians; 50 pre and post interviews
 Penn Presbyterian Medical Center: 10 physicians; 50
pre and post interviews
 Series of questions asked after patient’s visit with
doctor
 Compare frequencies of discussions about prostate
cancer
My roles in the project
 Analyzed community based interviews based on
ontology developed
 Helping to write descriptive paper focused on
community interviews
 Abstracted data about outcome variables collected
from pre and post intervention clinical encounters
and interviews
Findings
 Still in the process of conducting post intervention
interviews
 Evaluating effects of intervention (Future steps):


Compare pre and post intervention data
Compare outcome variables and survey results
Special Thanks
 Dr. John Holmes, PhD
 Ruthann Auten
 Annie Chung
 Roxana Maffei
 Joanne Levy and the staff at LDI
Acknowledgements
 Center of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
(CCEB)
 Center for Population Health and Health Disparities
(CPHHD)
 Selected Physicians and Patients from:


Penn Presbyterian Medical Center
Edward S. Cooper Practice of General Internal Medicine
The End