PRO-ACTIVE Ancillary 01 – Short-Term Transition to Telehealth in Response to COVID-19

In March 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, participating RCT sites had to cease non-essential in-person research services and rapidly shift SLP care to a telehealth platform. The purpose of this quality improvement initiative is to gather patient input, focusing on their experiences using telehealth for the PRO-ACTIVE SLP intervention, including its feasibility, acceptability, benefits and drawbacks. Understanding more about patient experiences using telehealth will be beneficial for adjusting our future approaches, including the completion of the trial itself and the future uptake of the successful implementation. Enrolment for this project was limited to UHN and MDACC and is now complete.

PRO-ACTIVE Ancillary 02 – The Canadian Experience of Dysphagia Therapy in HNC

The aim of this project is to understand the experiences with PRO-ACTIVE swallowing interventions within the Canadian healthcare system. The perspectives and experiences of patients and clinicians participating in the PRO-ACTIVE trial will be explored using qualitative research methods. This study will provide unique and novel insights into patients’ and clinicians’ perspectives, with the ultimate goal to improve the design of swallowing therapies tailored to patients’ and clinicians’ preferences, possibilities and needs. Enrolment for this project is limited to Canadian RCT sites and is now complete.

PRO-ACTIVE Ancillary 03 – Burden of COST on Patients with HNC Treated for Dysphagia

This project targets the economic impact related to dysphagia and its treatments from the patients’ perspective. One aim is to assess the feasibility of capturing patient-perceived financial burden over time (pre-radiation to 12 months post-radiation) and to explore changes over time. A second aim is to capture patients’ report of out-of-pocket costs up to 3 months post the end of radiation therapy. Enrolment for this project is currently only open at the UHN site.