An interventional study of care.coach Avatar™ in Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation and Cancer, sponsored by Victor Wang. Recruiting at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 19 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-03-06.
Sponsored by Victor Wang · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care
The overall goal of this study is to assess the efficacy of the care.coach Avatar™ in improving anxiety and quality of life for patients undergoing outpatient transplant. After care.coach Avatar™ content and scheduling ("digital intervention" or "program") has been optimized for outpatient allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT), a randomized controlled trial (RCT) will be conducted of the digital versus usual supportive care program for outpatient HCT recipients. Potential improvements in anxiety and quality of life will be evaluated, with the intent of increasing comfortability with outpatient transplant and expanding the population of eligible patients willing to receive their transplants in an outpatient setting.
Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT) is the delivery of multipotent donor-derived stem cells to a recipient patient. It typically involves a lengthy inpatient hospitalization (median 25.8 days). With improving availability of health services, prophylactic medications, and lower infection risk and transfusion requirements, outpatient HCT is becoming more prevalent for patients receiving reduced intensity conditioning (RIC). However, even for outpatient HCT, patients are hospitalized for a median of 8 days. Most symptoms from HCT are concentrated in the first 30-days after the transplant, and these must be better addressed to optimize benefits from outpatient HCT. For patients undergoing HCT, incidence of psychological consequences is higher than in other cancer health states; potential psychological symptoms include stress, anxiety, anger, depression, insomnia, and loneliness. Non-pharmacological approaches for improving quality of life (QOL) and reducing distress among HCT patients include psychoeducational, exercise, and mindfulness interventions. Although post-HCT changes in lifestyle are challenging, the Health Belief Model and Prochaska's Transtheoretical model of change posit that patients preparing for HCT day 0 (notated as D0), when they receive the stem cell infusion, would be highly motivated to learn about psychosocial supports and activities given their readiness for change and taking action. This presents an ideal timeframe for studying a psychosocial health coaching intervention.
9,365 studies on the registry are indexed under Neoplasms; 2,489 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 90 is above the median of 50 across 7,253 interventional studies indexed under Neoplasms.
Browse Neoplasms studies →Victor Wang is the lead sponsor of 2 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Exclusion Criteria:
care.coach Avatar™ with usual supportive care. The avatar program includes companionship, HCT educational modules, relaxation and mindfulness exercises, simple (seated) physical exercises, nightly check ins, and symptom self-management as needed.
Behavioral: care.coach Avatar™
Traditional supportive care comprising of a binder with HCT educational materials and regular meetings with a transplant nurse.
care.coach Avatar™ ("avatar") is a conversational relational agent that serves as a virtual companion and appears on a tablet device as an animated pet avatar. Each avatar is supervised by a 24x7 remote team of trained human staff whose abilities are augmented by artificial intelligence (AI) and software-driven health coaching and clinical protocols for consistency, automation, and scale. This unique human-in-the-loop design enables safe, empathic, natural conversations that form the basis for trusting relations and lasting behavior change. In addition to being a companion, the avatar educates patients about their condition, helps manage symptoms, and reinforces other healthy habits. Independent studies have demonstrated improved outcomes at a reduced cost of care. A pilot study demonstrated the feasibility of care.coach Avatar™ as a psychosocial support and health coach in hospitalized HCT patients. More research is needed to assess efficacy and applications in other HCT settings.
HADS-A
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) - Anxiety subscale
Time frame: Baseline, Day 20 (D+20) post-transplant
FACT-BMT
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Bone Marrow Transplantation
Time frame: Baseline, Day 20 (D+20) post-transplant
HADS-A
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) - Anxiety subscale
Time frame: Baseline, Day 90 (D+90) post-transplant
FACT-BMT
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - Bone Marrow Transplantation
Time frame: Baseline, Day 90 (D+90) post-transplant
Conversions
Conversion from Outpatient to Inpatient Transplant
Time frame: Day 20 (D+20) post-transplant, Day 90 (D+90) post-transplant
HADS-D
Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) - Depression subscale
Time frame: Baseline, Day 20 (D+20) post-transplant, Day 90 (D+90) post-transplant
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