Improving Stroke Prevention Therapy for Patients With Atrial Fibrillation in Primary Care

October 3, 2017 updated by: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Improving Stroke Prevention Therapy for Patients With Atrial Fibrillation in Primary Care: Protocol for a Pragmatic, Cluster-randomized Trial

The objective of this project is to increase the proportion of patients with AF that receive adequate stroke prevention therapy. Over half of patients with AF who suffer strokes are permanently disabled. Yet there remains a large portion of patients who do not receive appropriate stroke prevention therapy. The investigators hypothesize that a toolkit of quality improvement strategies in primary care could increase the proportion of patients with atrial fibrillation appropriately treated with stroke prevention therapy. The investigators' goal is to ensure the toolkit of interventions can be easily incorporated into day-to-day practice in primary care and can be readily and broadly disseminated if successful.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

The prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) is growing as the population ages and 15% of all strokes are already attributed to AF. Unfortunately, half of patients with AF do not receive prescriptions for anticoagulation to prevent stroke due to a variety of system, provider, and patient-level barriers. The investigators will conduct a pragmatic, cluster-randomized controlled trial to test a 'toolkit' of quality improvement interventions in primary care. In keeping with the recommendations of the chronic care model to simultaneously facilitate proactive care by providers and activate patients, the toolkit includes provider- focused strategies (education, audit and feedback, electronic medical record-based tools including decision support and reminders) plus patient-directed strategies (educational letters and reminders). Thirty three primary care clinics will be randomized to the intervention or usual care. The trial will last 12 months and will be powered to show a difference of 10% in the primary outcome of proportion of patients receiving guideline-concordant care for stroke prevention. Analysis will be blind to allocation.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
5000

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Canada
    • Ontario
      • Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4N 3M5
        • Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Physicians are participants in the Electronic Medical Record Administrative-data Linked Database (EMRALD).
  • Patients are rostered to participating physicians, with a diagnosis in the chart of atrial fibrillation

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Physicians who do not consent to data sharing
  • Patients who change physicians during the course of the study

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
No Intervention: Usual care
No standardized intervention for management of patients with atrial fibrillation. Instead participants receive interventions for management of chronic kidney disease.
Experimental: quality improvement toolkit
The toolkit includes provider-focused strategies (education, audit and feedback, electronic decision support and reminders) plus patient-directed strategies (educational letters and reminders).
Other: quality improvement toolkit
educational and informatics-based interventions, including brief guideline summary, decision support and audit and feedback

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Proportion of patients with AF receiving guideline-concordant stroke prevention therapy
Time Frame: one year
Patients with risk factors for stroke (ie. CHADS2 >1 or age >65) who are prescribed anticoagulants and patients with no risk factors for stroke (ie. CHADS2 = 0 and age <65) who are not prescribed anticoagulants will be considered to be receiving guideline concordant therapy. (For patients with CHADS2 = 1 but aged < 65 the guideline recommendations are unclear, so these patients will not be considered in the primary analysis. For example, in patients with AF and hypertension at a younger age, anticoagulation or aspirin or no treatment would each be reasonable.)
one year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
proportion of patients taking warfarin in therapeutic range
Time Frame: one year
patients must have INR measured 8 times during the year and therapeutic range assessed using Rosendaal method
one year
proportion of patients taking a novel anticoagulant with appropriate dosing
Time Frame: one year
Dabigatran, rivaroxaban and apixaban should be dose-adjusted in renal failure and avoided if estimated creatinine clearance is <30. Lower dose dabigatran is recommended for patients over 80.
one year
proportion receiving aspirin
Time Frame: one year
one year
proportion receiving clopidogrel
Time Frame: one year
one year
proportion achieving target blood pressure
Time Frame: one year
target defined as <130/80 for patients with diabetes, <150/80 for patients over 80, and <140/90 for all others
one year

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Collaborators

Collaborators

An organization other than the sponsor that provides support for a clinical study. This support may include activities related to funding, design, implementation, data analysis, or reporting.
Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Karen Tu, MD, ICES

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
August 1, 2014

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
April 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
June 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
August 14, 2013

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
August 19, 2013

First Posted (Estimate)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
August 22, 2013

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
October 5, 2017

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
October 3, 2017

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
October 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • G-13-0001873

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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