Leigh A. Neumayer, MD, professor of surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, co-director of the multidisciplinary team treating breast cancer at Huntsman Cancer Institute, discusses patient education following a breast cancer diagnosis.

Neumayer says that patients often have trouble absorbing information after receiving a cancer diagnosis. About five years ago, a nurse practioner had the idea for Neumayer to turn her initial 30-minute breast cancer educational talk into a video that patients could view at their leisure.â€‹ After the video was made, Neumayer wanted to study how it helped patients with their levels of anxiety and knowledge.

The study enrolled 52 patients and has been completed, though data still needs to be analyzed. Anecdotally, Neumayer says that if a patient she sees in the clinic has viewed the video, she is able to have an exchange about that patient and their disease in particular.

View Dr. Neumayer's educational video here

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Dr. Neumayer on Patient Education Following a Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Leigh A. Neumayer, MD, professor of surgery, University of Utah School of Medicine, co-director of the multidisciplinary team treating breast cancer at Huntsman Cancer Institute, discusses the challenges of recruiting patients for clinical trials.

The majority of clinical trials are not successful because they do not recruit enough patients, Neumayer says. In order to have a successful recruitment of a clinical trial, physicians have to make sure that the sites of the clinical trial have an adequate patient population. Neumayer says it is expensive to conduct clinical trials and there are a lot of compliance and regulatory issues.

It is also important to have good databases at the clinical trial sites, Neumayer says. However, it is difficult to recruit even 25% of eligible patients because of the commitment involved.

Neumayer says it is important to have the whole team know about the clinical trial so they can discuss it with the patients early on. 

Leigh A. Neumayer, MD, discusses the challenges of recruiting patients for clinical trials.

Leigh A. Neumayer, MD

Articles

Dr. Neumayer on Patient Education Following a Breast Cancer Diagnosis

Dr. Neumayer on the Challenges of Clinical Trial Recruitment