Ubuntu Pittsburgh Project (UPP): Empowering Community Leaders to Support Black Patients Living with Serious Illness in Pittsburgh

This project aims to evaluate and refine a community-level intervention designed to improve the health and quality-of-life of Black women with metastatic breast cancer. Building on pilot projects that Dr. Rosenzweig and Dr. Yu have conducted over the last two years, this project will train and empower Black lay ministers (non-ordained leaders within a church) … Read more

Technology-Supported Behavioral Activation to Optimize Day-to-Day Quality of Life with Advanced Cancer

The aims of this project are to (1) adapt behavioral activation to help patients living with advanced cancer to optimize their daily quality of life, to be delivered primarily via smartphone, and to incorporate personalized, data-driven feedback and objective activity monitoring, and (2) examine the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effects of this adapted intervention in … Read more

Measuring Quality of Life in Prospective Deprescribing Studies 

Outcomes important to patients, such as quality of life (QoL), have been highlighted as a critical component of studies examining the effectiveness of deprescribing interventions, yet are rarely measured due to practical concerns. The aim of this pilot study is to conduct a preliminary assessment of the feasibility of evaluating QoL in prospective deprescribing studies, … Read more

A Mobile Sensing System to Monitor Symptoms During Chemotherapy

Symptoms during cancer treatment are common, compromise patient quality of life and ability to tolerate treatment, and often go undetected at clinic visits. This project combines smartphone and wearable sensor data with machine learning to remotely monitor symptoms during chemotherapy and to develop a system that automatically recommends patient-provider contact when severe symptoms are detected. … Read more

Developing a Behavioral Intervention to Improve Coping Among Family Caregivers of Children with Medical Complexity (CMC)

In this pilot study, Dr. Yu used qualitative and human-centered design methodology to develop a behavioral intervention that improves CMC caregivers’ ability to cope with stress. The study characterized the experiences of caregivers of CMC in coping with stress, and in order to develop and refine a behavioral intervention to improve CMC caregivers’ coping. This … Read more

Randomized Trial of a Scalable, Interactive Tool to Support Surrogate Decision-Makers of Elderly Critically Ill Patients

The goal of this randomized control trial, led by Dr. Douglas White, is to conduct an appropriately powered randomized clinical trial of the Family Support Tool (FST) intervention among the surrogates of critically ill older adults to determine the effects of the FST on patients’ clinical outcomes, surrogates’ psychological outcomes, measures of decision quality, and … Read more

Randomized Trial of Specialty Palliative Care Integrated with Critical Care for Critically Ill Older Adults at High Risk of Death or Severe Disability (PROPACC)

This study combines a multicenter randomized efficacy trial with a concurrent qualitative study, to compare usual care with an early integration of specialty palliative care with the standard critical care for critically ill older adults at high risk of death or severe disability. Participants include 625 older, critically ill patients at high risk of death … Read more