E-learning to Improve the Quality of Drug Prescribing in Hospitalized Elderly Patients

January 12, 2015 updated by: Paola Boccardo, Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research

Effect of an Integrated E-learning Intervention, Focused on Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment to Improve the Quality of Drug Prescribing in Hospitalized Elderly Patients

This randomized controlled pragmatic study is aimed to set-up, assess and implement an integrated e-learning program of medical education in an hospital setting, focused on teaching and implementing CGA added to geriatric pharmacological notions (GPNs) to improve the quality of drug prescribing in elderly patients

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 integrated e-learning program (intervention group) is focused on teaching and implementing knowledge on CGA and GPNs to help clinicians to improve the quality of drug prescribing in the elderly.The GPNs is focused on pharmaco-epidemiological issues of drug prescribing, pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic changes during aging, topics in evaluating and managing polypharmacy, criteria to review the appropriateness of drug therapies and the clinical relevance of PDDI in the elderly. The control group receives only GPNs.

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.
697

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

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

75 years and older (Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • people aged 75 years or older

Exclusion Criteria:

  • people aged 75 years or older
  • refusal of consent to participate
  • a life expectancy of less than 6 months

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: Treatment
  • 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.
Other: Intervention
e-learning program of medical education, focused on teaching and implementing Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) added to geriatric pharmacological notions (GPNs)
Other: E-learning
e-learning program of medical education, focused on teaching and implementing Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) added to geriatric pharmacological notions (GPNs)
Other: Control
e-learning program of medical education, focused on teaching only geriatric pharmacological notions (GPNs)
Other: E-learning
e-learning program of medical education, focused on teaching and implementing Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) added to geriatric pharmacological notions (GPNs)

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
Improvement of drug prescribing
Time Frame: Participants will be followed for the duration of hospital stay, an expected average of 12 days

The primary study objective is to evaluate whether an integrated e-learning program of medical education, focused on teaching and implementing CGA added to GPNs (intervention) is superior to delivering GPNs only (control) in reducing the prescription of potentially inappropriate medications (PID) or of potential drug-drug interactions (PDDI) during hospitalization and at hospital discharge in hospitalized elderly.

The primary outcome is the change in prescription of PID,as defined by Beers' criteria , or of PDDI related to the 20 drugs most frequently prescribed during hospital stay and at discharge.
Participants will be followed for the duration of hospital stay, an expected average of 12 days

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
clinical outcomes (lenght of hospitalization, mortality, rehospitalization)
Time Frame: 12 months

Secondary objectives are the assessment of:

- the impact of the integrated e-learning intervention in terms of length of hospitalization, in-hospital and overall mortality, re-hospitalization and institutionalization during a follow-up of 12 months; - the persistence and the clinical impact on the enrolled patients of the effect of the integrated e-learning intervention on the improvement of quality of drug prescribing during a follow-up of 12 months.

Secondary outcomes are the persistence and the clinical impact of the integrated e-learning intervention on duration of hospitalization, rate of in-hospital and overall mortality, re-hospitalization and institutionalization during 12 months of follow-up.
12 months

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.
Mario Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research

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.
Agenzia Italiana del Farmaco

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.
November 1, 2012

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.
September 1, 2013

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.
September 1, 2014

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).
December 16, 2014

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.
January 12, 2015

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.
January 15, 2015

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

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.
January 15, 2015

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.
January 12, 2015

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.
January 1, 2015

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

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.
  • FARM87SA2B

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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