Geriatric Assessment Reporting in Real Time (GARRT) in Non-electively Hospitalized Older Cancer Patients

This study evaluates the impact of geriatric assessment reporting in real-time (GARRT) on key hospital based outcomes in non-electively hospitalized older (> 70 years) adults with cancer. Participants will be randomly assigned to the GARRT group, or the control group. All participants will fill out user friendly questionnaire called the geriatric assessment. The results of the geriatric assessment will be given to the physicians of participants in the GARRT group in real-time. The physicians of participants in the control group will not receive real time results.

This study will compare the referral rates of participants in each group to determine if providing real-time results of the geriatric assessment impact referral rates.

Inclusion criteria

• Age 70 years or older.
• English speaking.
• Admitted to UNC Hospitals non-electively within 72 hours.
• Biopsy proven solid tumor or myeloma or lymphoma.
• Newly diagnosed cancer patients for whom active cancer directed therapy is planned within the next six months or patients on active cancer directed therapy either currently or within the previous 6 months.
• Signed written IRB-approved informed consent.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients meeting any of the following exclusion criteria at baseline will be excluded from study participation. Patients with a life expectancy <6 weeks
• Patients who are <48 hours post-surgery.
• Patients who are admitted to an intensive care setting.
• Patients with acute myeloma lymphoma (AML) or other high grade hematologic malignancies.
• Patients undergoing bone marrow transplant or admitted to the bone marrow transplant unit.