IMplementation of an RCT to imProve Treatment With Oral AntiCoagulanTs in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation (IMPACT-AFib)

April 8, 2025 updated by: Richard Platt, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

IMplementation of a Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) to imProve Treatment With Oral AntiCoagulanTs in Patients With Atrial Fibrillation

The purpose of this study is to use a decentralized claims database to determine whether education on stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) among AF patients and their providers can result in increased use of oral anticoagulants (OAC) for stroke prevention among those AF patients with guideline-based indications for oral anticoagulation (CHA₂DS₂-VASc score of 2 or greater). Specifically, the investigators will conduct a prospective, randomized, open-label education intervention trial to evaluate the effect of the early patient and provider education interventions on the proportion of patients with evidence of at least one OAC prescription fill (defined as one OAC dispensing or 4 international normalized ratio [INR tests] over the course of the follow-up through the date on which at least 80% of eligible study participants have at least 12 months of follow-up time). A total of approximately 80,000 patients will be enrolled within multiple major health plans across the United States. The randomization will be performed by the central coordinating center, and the health plans will mail the educational intervention materials to their members and providers.

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 study is a prospective, randomized, and open-label education intervention trial. Patients with AF and a CHA₂DS₂-VASc score of 2 or greater will be randomized in a 1:1 ratio to an intervention cohort and a control cohort within each participating health plan. The definition for OAC medication fill will be an OAC medication dispensing or at least 4 INR tests in the claims data. The claims records of the patients randomized to the intervention cohort will then be linked to "fresh" (i.e. about 1 month old) pharmacy claims data at the time of randomization. Patients without evidence of an OAC medication fill during the 12 months prior to randomization will be included in the patient-level and provider-level early educational intervention. In addition to usual care, these patients and their providers, where an individual provider may be identified, will receive a one-time mailing at trial start. Patients randomized to this early intervention with evidence of an OAC medication fill during the 12 months prior to randomization will be excluded from the trial.

The control cohort will receive usual care over the initial study period. After the date on which at least 80% of eligible study participants have at least 12 months of follow-up time, "fresh" pharmacy claims data for the control intervention cohort that was generated and locked at the time of randomization will be used to assess trial eligibility, and those patients without evidence of an OAC medication fill during the 12 months prior to randomization will be included in the primary and secondary analyses as the control arm. Patients randomized to the control arm with evidence of an OAC medication fill during the 12 months prior to randomization will be excluded from the trial and will not be included in analyses. The baseline characteristics of the control patients will be examined at the same time point as the intervention patients, meaning at the time of randomization. The primary outcome is a comparison of the proportion of patients not on OAC during the 12 months prior to randomization, who were started on OAC over the course of the follow-up through the date on which at least 80% of eligible study participants have at least 12 months of follow-up time in the early versus the delayed intervention arm. A total of approximately 80,000 patients (randomized 1:1) across all participating data partners (Aetna, Harvard Pilgrim, Humana, and Optum) will be enrolled from participating data partners across the United States. The follow-up time for the primary outcome will be 12 months from the date at which at least 80% of eligible study participates are enrolled (date on which early intervention materials are mailed).

The providers of patients in the control cohort who did not receive OAC medication during the course of the 12-month study period and meet the inclusion criteria will receive the delayed intervention: the provider-only education intervention, a one-time mailing administered 12 months after at least 80% of early intervention mailings have occurred (patients will not receive any educational materials). The investigators intend to assess the primary and secondary endpoints again 24 months after at least 80% of early intervention mailings have occurred to assess the durability and longer-term outcomes of the effect of the patient- and provider-level education intervention, as well as the use of OAC following the delayed provider-level education intervention. However, as this second assessment is exploratory, investigators may not conduct these analyses if the results of the primary outcome are consistently null.

Because the Sentinel Distributed Database will be used for follow-up information, and this information is refreshed approximately quarterly and this is done on separate timetables for the different health plans, it is likely that when at least the required follow-up time is available for at least 80% of people, there will be more than 12 or 24 months of followup for over 80% of people. All participants' outcomes will be assessed using all possible person-time; patients will have different duration of follow-up.

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.
64666

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

  • United States
    • Kentucky
      • Louisville, Kentucky, United States, 40202
        • Humana Healthcare Research, Inc.
    • Massachusetts
      • Quincy, Massachusetts, United States, 02169
        • Harvard Pilgrim Health Care
      • Waltham, Massachusetts, United States, 02451
        • OptumInsight, Inc
    • Pennsylvania
      • Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, United States, 19422
        • Aetna, Inc.

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

30 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Two or more diagnoses of AF (ICD-9 and/or 10 codes) at least one day apart and with at least one diagnosis within the last 12 months prior to the last date in the current approved data used for cohort identification
  2. CHA₂DS₂-VASc score of 2 or greater
  3. Medical and pharmacy insurance coverage of at least the prior year as identified via administrative claims databases of one of the participating data partners as of the date of randomization
  4. Age 30 years or greater as of the last date in the current approved data used for cohort identification

Exclusion Criteria:

  1. Evidence of OAC medication fill during the 12 months prior to randomization (determined at randomization for the early intervention cohort and 12 months post-randomization for the delayed intervention cohort)
  2. Conditions other than AF that require anticoagulation, including treatment of deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, or ever having had a mechanical prosthetic heart valve prior to the last date in the current approved data used for cohort identification
  3. Pregnancy within 6 months of the last date in the current approved data used for cohort identification
  4. Any known history of intracranial hemorrhage prior to the last date in the current approved data used for cohort identification
  5. Hospitalization for bleeding within the last 6 months of the last date in the current approved data used for cohort identification
  6. Patients with recent P2Y12 antagonist use (i.e. clopidogrel, prasugrel, ticlopidine, or ticagrelor within 90 days of the last date in the current approved data used for cohort identification

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: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

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.
Experimental: Intervention
Educational mailing to (1) AF patients with guideline-based indications for oral anticoagulation (CHA₂DS₂-VASc score of 2 or greater) who appear to not have received OAC treatment at time of randomization and (2) their providers, where an individual provider may be identified
Behavioral: Early Patient-Level and Provider-Level Educational Intervention

Letters to patients that (1) explain to the patient that he or she appears to have AF, characterize the risk of stroke, and emphasize that although there may be a medical reason, the patient does not seem to be on an anticoagulant and (2) encourage the patient to discuss this with his or her provider to ask if he or she might benefit from OAC therapy to prevent stroke.

Early intervention letters to providers explain this project, the nature of the problem, and identify a list of the provider's patients who have been contacted, as the provider and patient letters will be sent at approximately the same time; describe evidence and guidelines regarding oral anticoagulation.
Experimental: Control
Educational mailing to providers of AF patients with guideline-based indications for oral anticoagulation (CHA₂DS₂-VASc score of 2 or greater) who appear to not have received OAC treatment in the time following randomization. These patients will have received 'usual care' for the time between randomization and delayed educational mailing.
Behavioral: Delayed Provider-Level Educational Intervention
Delayed intervention letters to patients' providers, where they may be identified, that explain this project, the nature of the problem, and identify a list of their patients who are flagged as at risk for stroke and have not been treated with an oral anticoagulant; describe evidence and guidelines regarding oral anticoagulation.

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 Evidence of at Least One OAC Dispensing (Prescription Fill) (Defined as One OAC Dispensing or 4 INR (International Normalized Ratio) Tests)
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at 42 days, 90 days, 183 days, and one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the effect of the patient and provider education interventions (versus usual care with delayed provider education intervention) on the proportion of patients with evidence of at least one OAC prescription fill (defined as one OAC dispensing or 4 INR tests) over the course of the 12 months of follow-up.
Outcome assessed at 42 days, 90 days, 183 days, and one year of follow-up time.

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
Rates of Hospitalization for Ischemic or Unknown Stroke
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on rates of ischemic / unknown stroke hospitalization
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Rates of Hospitalization for Hemorrhagic Stroke
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on rates of hospitalization for hemorrhagic stroke
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Rates of Hospitalization for Ischemic or Hemorrhagic Stroke
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on rates of hospitalization for ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Rates of Hospitalization for Ischemic or Hemorrhagic Stroke or Systemic Embolism
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on rates of hospitalization for ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke or systemic embolism
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Rates of Hospitalization for Ischemic or Hemorrhagic Stroke or Systemic Embolism or Bleeding
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on rates of hospitalization for ischemic or hemorrhagic stroke or systemic embolism or bleeding
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Rates of Hospitalization for Bleeding
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on rates of hospitalization for any bleeding
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Proportion of Patients Dispensed an OAC Within One Year
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on time to first OAC dispensing (prescription fill)
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Number of Days Covered by OAC Dispensing
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on proportion of days covered by OAC dispensings (prescription fills)
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Proportion of Patients on Oral Anticoagulation
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on proportion of patients on oral anticoagulation at 12 months of follow-up
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
All-cause In-hospital Mortality Rates
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on all-cause in-hospital mortality rates
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Health Care Utilization for AF Patients
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on health care utilization for AF patients, which would be reported as counts of number of health care utilization events (outpatient visits, days hospitalized, number of emergency department visits, etc.)
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Health Care Utilization for AF Patients, Days
Time Frame: Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.
Evaluate the impact of the patient and provider education interventions on health care utilization for AF patients, which would be reported as counts of number of health care utilization events (outpatient visits, days hospitalized, number of emergency department visits, etc.)
Outcome assessed at one year of follow-up time.

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.
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care

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.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Duke Clinical Research Institute
Aetna, Inc.
Humana Inc.
Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative
OptumInsight Life Sciences, Inc.

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

Helpful Links

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 (Actual)

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.
September 25, 2017

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 30, 2020

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.
December 31, 2021

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).
July 7, 2017

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 22, 2017

First Posted (Actual)

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 23, 2017

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.
April 9, 2025

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.
April 8, 2025

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.
April 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

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.
  • IMPACT-AFib

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

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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Conditions

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