Does the new education model seek to empower patients to ask questions about goals of care, for example?
Yes. Engaging more fully in this conversation will also lead patients and families to understand more clearly what the clinical trials are about, what they can and can’t promise. Did the appeal of the COPE model come out of what you learned in the first Simultaneous Care project? We first learned about the COPE model from two well-respected researchers and clinicians who were at Johns Hopkins Oncology Center. Matthew Loscalzo, ACSW, who is now an associate dean at Eastern Virginia Medical School, and Jim Zabora, ScD, dean of the School of Social Service at Catholic University, had worked extensively with the model when they were at Johns Hopkins. They came out to California to meet with us, and together with the phenomenal expertise and guidance of Betty Ferrell, PhD, from the City of Hope Medical Center, we developed this new Simultaneous Care program. In developing the project we attempted to answer the questions, “What can we provide patients that will address psychosocial issues ex
