An interventional study of Telephonic Peer Coaching and Storytelling in Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, sponsored by Baystate Medical Center. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 40 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-06-05.
Sponsored by Baystate Medical Center · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) affects approximately 16 million Americans and is characterized by recurrent exacerbations that lead to 1.5 million Emergency Department visits and 700,000 hospitalizations annually. Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) is a structured program of exercise and self-management support that has been proven to relieve shortness of breath and increase quality of life when initiated after an exacerbation, but unfortunately, few eligible patients participate. This project will compare the effectiveness of two novel strategies - one involving video narratives of other patients telling their story of how they overcame challenges and completed PR, the other involving telephonic peer coaching with an individual with lived experience - to enhanced usual care, and to each other, at increasing patient participation in PR after an exacerbation.
Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) lead to roughly 1.5 million ED visits and 700,000 hospitalizations annually. Recovery is slow and accompanied by high levels of acute care utilization and mortality. Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) is a structured program of exercise and self-management support that has been shown to relieve dyspnea and improve quality of life. Clinical guidelines recommend PR for patients with stable COPD and after an exacerbation. Unfortunately, even when referred by physicians, research has shown that few patients who might benefit from PR ever begin treatment.
The primary goal of this project is to identify effective strategies for promoting and sustaining participation in PR. Peer Support involves pairing a patient with a trained peer from a similar background, and facing similar health challenges, who has completed PR. There is a growing body of evidence demonstrating the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of telephonic peer support for chronic disease management. Narrative interventions, or 'Storytelling', are novel approaches for changing attitudes and behaviors of patients that involve creating and disseminating videos narrated by individuals with lived experience with the same condition or facing the same treatment. Storytelling interventions have been shown to help individuals achieve better blood pressure control, and storytelling is being studied in a variety of other clinical contexts.
In the R61 Phase, the investigators will recruit and train a cohort of peer coaches in behavior change techniques, and will recruit a diverse group of storytellers, capture their narratives on video, and create a library of 6-8 powerful stories. The investigators will finalize the protocol, trial infrastructure, and pilot the recruitment strategy. During the R33 Phase, the investigators will recruit 305 adults treated for exacerbation of COPD, and randomize them to 1) Enhanced "Usual Care" (eUC); 2) eUC + Storytelling; or 3) eUC + Peer Support. The investigators will evaluate the effectiveness of each strategy compared to eUC, and to each other, at promoting participation in PR at 6 months.
Using a mixed-methods approach, the investigators will evaluate intervention acceptability, sustainability, and cost, from the perspectives of the patients and peer coaches as well as PR program staff and hospital leadership. This information will be uses to refine the strategies and to disseminate an implementation package that will enable other PR programs to adopt these approaches.
5,520 studies on the registry are indexed under Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive; 856 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 305 is above the median of 62 across 3,839 interventional studies indexed under Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive.
Browse Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive studies →Baystate Medical Center is the lead sponsor of 48 studies on the registry; 8 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe out, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
COPD
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease: long-term lung disease that makes it hard to breathe out, including emphysema and chronic bronchitis.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Contraindication
A reason a treatment, test or procedure should not be given to a particular person, such as an allergy, another illness or a medicine they take.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Enhanced usual care describes a process in which automated surveillance is used to identify individuals experiencing a COPD exacerbation. This is followed by direct outreach - either through in-person visits while a patient is hospitalized, or by mail and telephone in the outpatient setting, to facilitate referral to PR. Subjects randomized to this arm will be given a pamphlet describing the benefits of PR.
Subjects randomized to the eUC + Storytelling intervention will view the video narrative(s) of one or more individuals with COPD who has overcome similar barriers and has attended a program of PR. Subjects will be shown the first chapter of the story immediately after randomization and will receive email and/or text messages to prompt viewing of subsequent chapters at 2 weeks, 1 month, 2 months, 3 months and 5 months. Emails and text messages will include a link to a REDCap document that contains a set of embedded video clips representing the next chapter in each storyteller's narrative.
Behavioral: Storytelling
Subjects randomized to the eUC + Peer support intervention will be matched with a peer coach of the same gender, race, and approximate age. For those enrolled during a hospitalization, coaches will be instructed to attempt the initial phone contact prior to the patient's discharge; for patients enrolled after an ED visit or outpatient exacerbation, coaches will be instructed to contact the patients within 72 hours of randomization. Peer coaches will be asked to complete at least one call each week during months 1-2, biweekly calls during months 3-4, and monthly calls during months 5-6. Coaches will be asked to follow a conversation guide, provided during the initial training, to structure phone conversations with their paired patient.
Behavioral: Telephonic Peer Coaching
Telephonic Peer Coaching from an individual with lived experience with COPD and Pulmonary Rehabilitation trained in motivational interviewing
Video narratives of an individual with lived experience with COPD and Pulmonary Rehabilitation describing their journey through Pulmonary Rehabilitation
Number of Pulmonary Rehabilitation (PR) sessions: Completion of ≥6 PR sessions within 6 months of randomization
Time frame: 6 months
Any attendance (yes/no) at PR within 6 months of randomization.
Time frame: 6 months
Total number of PR sessions completed within 6 months of randomization.
Time frame: 6 months
Time to first PR session attended
Time frame: 6 months
Change in Modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) dyspnea scale from randomization to 6 months
Time frame: 6 months
Change in Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ) from randomization to 6 months
Time frame: 6 months
Change in Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) from randomization to 6 months
Time frame: 6 months
Activation (Self Efficacy for Managing Chronic Diseases 6)
Time frame: 6 months
Change in Medical Outcomes Survey (MOS) Social Support Survey from randomization to 6 months
Time frame: 6 months
Change in UCLA Loneliness Scale from randomization to 6 months
Time frame: 6 months
Total # of COPD Exacerbations
Time frame: 6 months
Total # of ED visits
Time frame: 6 months
Total # of Hospitalizations
Time frame: 6 months
Change in Modified Medical Research Council (mMRC) dyspnea scale from enrollment to 12 months - For Peer Coach subjects
Time frame: 12 months
Change in Clinical COPD Questionnaire (CCQ) from enrollment to 12 months- For Peer Coach subjects
Time frame: 12 months
Change in Activation (Self Efficacy for Managing Chronic Diseases 6) from enrollment to 12 months - For Peer Coach subjects
Time frame: 12 months
Change in Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) from enrollment to 12 months - For Peer Coach subjects
Time frame: 12 months
Change in UCLA Loneliness Scale from enrollment to 12 months - For Peer Coach subjects
Time frame: 12 months
Change in Satisfaction with life scale (SWLS) from enrollment to 12 months - For Peer Coach subjects
Time frame: 12 months
Breathlessness belief questionnaire
11-item scale to measure activity avoidance due to dyspnea.
Time frame: 6-months.
Plan to share: Yes — We will share deidentified individual participant data upon receipt and approval of research question and analysis plan from a researcher; or for teaching purposes.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Informed consent form
Time frame: We will share deidentified IPD based on our criteria within 3 months after publication of our study results in scientific journals without any time limit to share thereafter.
Access criteria: Access will be based on receipt of research question/s and analysis strategies planned by a researcher. Approval to access the deidentified IDP will be granted to the researcher if deemed relevant by the study PI.
No publications or documents are linked to this record.
Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.
Contact study teamGet an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.
Sign in to followQuestions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.
Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.
Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.
Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive →
Baystate Medical Center