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CompletedNCT03546322Updated Jul 1, 2022

Customized Registry Tool for Tracking Adherence to Clinical Guidelines for Head and Neck Cancers

An observational study in Head and Neck Neoplasms, sponsored by University of California, San Francisco. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2022-07-01.

Sponsored by University of California, San Francisco · Observational

Study type
Observational
Model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
802
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
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Study summary

To implement and evaluate a health information technology platform designed to support the management of patients with head and neck cancer in an urban, publicly-funded outpatient setting. This is an observational study; researchers will not assign specific interventions to study participants.

Read the detailed description

The investigators aim to implement and evaluate a health information technology (HIT) registry at an urban, public delivery system. The investigators will not assign specific interventions to the study participants, but rather observationally assess the effect of the HIT registry, designed to support routine medical care, on participants.

The investigators will use systems engineering methodologies to design, develop, and implement the platform. The platform will be implemented in the Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery clinic that cares for patients with head and neck cancers. The study will assess patient outcomes and evaluate the time it takes for patients to progress through key treatment and post-treatment milestones before and after the HIT tool is implemented. The investigators will use models controlling for secular trend to estimate the effect of the tool on improving timely and successful completion of guideline-based care processes.

The HIT platform seeks to improve the monitoring and alerting functionality of existing systems. Specifically, it replaces paper-based systems previously used by the clinic to monitor its head and neck cancer patients. It will be implemented clinic-wide for all patients being treated for head and neck cancers. The investigators are not assigning a specific intervention to patients, but rather supporting the clinic and health system in the development of a population management platform that improves routine care processes. The platform is approved for clinical use and research by the San Francisco Health Network and the University of California, San Francisco.

The HIT platform users are clinicians who are responsible for monitoring patients with head and neck cancer and agree to partner with the investigators to improve monitoring processes. The clinicians involved may be asked to voluntarily participate in surveys, interviews, focus groups, and program evaluations. Patient medical records will be reviewed, but patients monitored on the registry will not be contacted by researchers.

Procedures are in place to monitor the registry. First, quality assurance is performed by the research team, information technology analysts, and software engineers. This includes checking that data in the platform matches source data, such as data entered in the electronic health record. In addition, the platform users are audited on a weekly basis. A data dictionary defining variables used in the platform exists and is updated as needed. Patients will be added to the registry by a clinician if they are diagnosed with head and neck cancer. The research team will support the clinicians in data analysis, although this will be performed with population-level, de-identified data. However, if unmediated adverse events are identified by the research team, the research team will alert the clinicians immediately. The HIT platform is designed to supplement, but not replace, the existing electronic health record. Data on the registry will be validated with source data and users will still engage with the source data and electronic health record as appropriate clinically and operationally.

02

Conditions studied

  • Head and Neck Neoplasms

Keywords

  • head and neck cancer
  • health information technology
  • patient safety
  • adherence
  • ambulatory
  • outpatient
  • human factors
  • vulnerable populations
  • chronic disease
03

In context

Head and Neck Neoplasms

2,344 studies on the registry are indexed under Head and Neck Neoplasms; 551 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 802 is above the median of 100 across 441 observational studies indexed under Head and Neck Neoplasms.

Browse Head and Neck Neoplasms studies →

Lead sponsor

University of California, San Francisco is the lead sponsor of 2,132 studies on the registry; 375 are open to participants now.

Of its 262 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 196 (75%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No
Sampling method
Non-probability sample

Study population

Patients with head and neck cancer monitored by the Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery clinic at the Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients with head and neck surgery monitored by the Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Clinic

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • N/A
05

Study design

Observational model
Cohort
Time perspective
Prospective
Enrollment
802 participants (actual)
Target follow-up
5 Years
Patient registry
Yes

Groups and cohorts

  • Registry

    Head and neck cancer patients monitored on registry

    Other: Registry

Interventions

  • OtherRegistry

    Patients who are diagnosed with head and neck cancer and monitored by the Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery clinic at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center will be included in this group. The intervention is the implementation of a registry, designed to replace existing paper-based systems for tracking patients. All head and neck cancer patients monitored by the clinic will be included.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Workup and Treatment Planning - Primary Outcome

    Time from diagnosis to initiation of treatment

    Time frame: From date of diagnosis to first date of treatment, assessed up to 5 years

  2. Treatment - Primary Outcome

    Proportion of patients that complete tumor board treatment recommendations

    Time frame: 5 years

Secondary outcomes

  1. Workup and Treatment Planning - Secondary Outcome #1

    Time from diagnosis to presentation at tumor board

    Time frame: From date of diagnosis to presentation at tumor board, assessed up to 5 years

  2. Workup and Treatment Planning - Secondary Outcome #2

    Time from diagnosis to dental evaluation

    Time frame: From date of diagnosis to date of dental evaluation for patients undergoing radiation treatment, assessed up to 5 years

  3. Workup and Treatment Planning - Secondary Outcome #3

    Time from diagnosis to first visit in oncology clinics

    Time frame: From date of diagnosis to date of first visit with oncology clinic, assessed up to 5 years

  4. Treatment - Secondary Outcome

    Proportion of patients who complete post-treatment radiation

    Time frame: 6 weeks

  5. Loss to follow-up

    Proportion of patients who are lost to follow-up

    Time frame: 5 years

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Study locations

1 site
  • Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center
    San Francisco, California 94110, United States
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Hickey MD, Lisker S, Brodie S, Vittinghoff E, Russell MD, Sarkar U. Customized registry tool for tracking adherence to clinical guidelines for head and neck cancers: protocol for a pilot study. Pilot Feasibility Stud. 2020 Feb 7;6:16. doi: 10.1186/s40814-020-0552-0. eCollection 2020. PubMed 32047648 ↗

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Jul 1, 2022, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT03546322
Lead sponsor
University of California, San Francisco
Collaborators
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Jun 6, 2018
Start date
Jun 1, 2018
Primary completion
Mar 30, 2022
Completion
Mar 30, 2022
Last update
Jul 1, 2022

Study contacts

Urmimala Sarkar, MD, MPH
principal investigator · University of California, San Francisco

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Jun 2022. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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