Hasmeena Kathuria, M.D.

The goal of our study is to reduce disparities in lung cancer morbidity and mortality by capitalizing on hospitalization at an urban safety-net hospital as an opportunity to connect high-risk smokers to lung cancer screening and smoking cessation services. We will study the effect of adding a nurse-driven low-dose CT screening shared decision-making intervention to inpatient smoking cessation counseling among hospitalized smokers. We will test whether initiating shared decision-making for lung cancer screening in conjunction with inpatient smoking cessation counseling during hospitalization increases low-dose CT screening rates, knowledge of lung cancer screening, and smoking quit rates. We will establish the effectiveness of the intervention, and also help inform future implementation.

Update: We have begun enrolling study participants either to receive inpatient shared decision-making by a thoracic oncology nurse using a decision aid, or usual care (a decision aid about low-dose CT), during inpatient smoking cessation consultation visits. In both study arms, the thoracic oncology nurse counsels patients on smoking cessation. We are collecting data on patient knowledge of low-dose CT screening (before and after the intervention); completion of the screening; and six-month smoking quit rates. We hypothesize that for screen-eligible smokers, inpatient shared decision-making will increase low-dose CT screening rates, patient knowledge of the screening, and six-month smoking quit rates compared to usual care.