IRB boosts participation with 'Celebrity Jeopardy'
Featuring 'Martha Stewart' and 'Jimmy Buffett'
The drive to improve participation in cancer clinical trials has led one cancer center to try a novel approach, using humor and a game show format to educate people about participation in research.
The myth-busting homage to "Celebrity Jeopardy!" and more specifically the "Saturday Night Live" parody of the game show was the brainchild of the patient advocacy group at Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) in Nashville, TN.
Jane Kennedy, MSW, manager of patient advocacy for the cancer center, says the volunteer advocacy group is made up of cancer survivors and caregivers who are committed to working with researchers and to educating the community about research.
"One of the areas that they identified as being an area of need was the low participation rate in clinical trials," Kennedy says. "They began to think about how we could go about this in a way that's unique and different instead of going out and doing a boring PowerPoint presentation. How can we make this interesting and fun and interactive and yet have it be an effective learning tool?"
The resulting program was a live scripted performance of "Celebrity Jeopardy!" featuring faux celebrities. Audience members are given clickers that allow them to register their best guesses at the truth behind research myths presented during the program.
Because it was not a research protocol, IRB approval was not required beforehand. But Kennedy says an IRB staffer, Research Subject Advocate Jan Zolkower, helped with the project.
"She busts one of the myths in one of the videos shown," Kennedy says. "She was instrumental in helping us think through the answer to that myth and develop the response.
Zolkower also showed the questions and answers from the program to others in her office, and Kennedy sought input from the clinical trials executive director and clinical trials nurses at VICC.
Mimics 'SNL'
When the patient advocacy group began looking at how to bust myths about research participation, they settled on the "Celebrity Jeopardy!" format and selected three celebrities Martha Stewart, Jimmy Buffett, and movie character Forrest Gump's sister Doris Gump all portrayed by group members.
Another member plays "Alexandra Trebek," the female counterpart to real-life "Jeopardy!" host Alex Trebek.
Kennedy says the format closely mimics the "Saturday Night Live" parodies of the show, in which "celebrities" give nonsensical answers to the questions.
"They say things that are very in line with how their characters would respond," she says. "There's a lot of humor and a lot of interaction between the host and the celebrities and then we use the experts whom we have videotaped physicians, clinicians, researchers, and our IRB person to actually give the factual response."
Audience members armed with clickers get the opportunity to answer the question as well, using an audience response system that tabulates and displays their answers.
"We use it with Microsoft PowerPoint and software called TurningPoint," Kennedy says. "They'll see the myth on a large screen, with multiple choice answers. They click on what they think the answer is, A, B or C and it automatically calculates the responses and they get to see the results immediately."
Kennedy says she's used this instant polling as a sort of pre-test of what the audience knows about research. She also administers a written post-test to the audience to see how much they've learned from the program.
Increase in knowledge
After the first performance a year ago, before a mostly college-educated group that included a number of health care professionals, they found a 20% increase in knowledge in the post-testing.
"We were very encouraged by the pilot, given the audience that we had (and how educated they were)."
Results from a second performance before a rural community group have not been calculated yet.
The advocacy group also recently taped an in-studio performance that will be put on a DVD.
"We can offer the DVD, along with one of our advocates, which can be taken into a community setting," Kennedy says. "We can show the DVD, using the audience response system, and do it in much the same way (as the previous performances) except that it wouldn't be live.
"The other thing we're going to do is to write some software so that we can put it on our website and it would be interactive. A person can come to our website, pull up the DVD, watch it and would be able to click on the answers on their computer just as if it were a live show."
She says institutions wanting to conduct a similar education program would need to gather the resources necessary both in terms of technology and the time needed to complete it.
"I think it's important that you have a group of individuals who are committed and have the time to devote to this, because it took us almost a year of planning," she says. "All of the folks who are part of our advocacy program are volunteers. They're not paid staff, and you have to be mindful of their time and what they're able to commit. But these are a group of individuals who are both committed to our institution and also to getting the word out and educating the public."
Game show's myth busting questions Here are some of the myth-busting questions and answers presented as part of Vanderbilt Ingram Cancer Center's program about research participation:
Answers: 1. B, 2. B, 3. C |
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