The Potential of Technology to Improve Chronic Disease Management and Quality of Care

July 25, 2011 updated by: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
We seek to determine if patient data entry, data entered based alerts, and data review in a secure patient portal may provide a sustainable approach to improve diabetic outcomes in a cost effective manner. We plan to study the extent to which the portal can improve diabetic outcomes and quality of care. We recognize, however, that some patients will be more predisposed to adopting technology and some will be more predisposed to improving their compliance than others. Hence, we will also develop and test interventions that may improve adoption and compliance. The goals of the proposed study are: 1) to assess whether a web portal will improve care outcomes in diabetic patients; 2a) to describe the characteristics of patients whose health behavior improves over the study period; 2b) to describe the characteristics of patients who adopt the web portal-based disease management technology; 3) to develop and test targeted interventions to increase the adoption of the web portal and improve patient health behavior; and 4) to monitor the ongoing costs associated with the web portal and patient healthcare resource utilization, and to monitor the incremental costs of the interventions designed to improve utilization of the technology and patient compliance with their diabetic regimens.

Study Overview

Detailed Description

To date, limited research has been conducted to determine if health information technology (HIT) is effective in improving the outcomes for patients with chronic diseases. Research is required to determine if interventions facilitated by an institutional EMR platform can be implemented such that they support patients with chronic diseases to achieve improved outcomes in a cost effective fashion.

At the Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF) an ambulatory EMR has been implemented to foster patient safety and institutional best practice guidelines, to facilitate research, and to achieve efficiencies in practice management. Our EMR is the foundation of the CCF patient portal. One of the functions of the portal is to allow patients to enter specific data elements that become part of their permanent medical record. Diabetics can enter and review their home glucometer readings, and view alert messages based on their entries. The entries are transferred to the patient's primary care physician's EMR In-Basket for review.

We recognize that some patients will be more predisposed to technology adoption and some will be more health behavior compliant than others. Therefore, in addition to studying our portal's efficacy in positive diabetic behavior change, we will test if interventions can assist less predisposed and less compliant patients to become more compliant and more inclined to adopt the technology.

The goals of the proposed study are:

1) to assess whether a web portal will improve care outcomes in diabetic patients; 2a) to describe the characteristics of patients whose health behavior improves over the study period; 2b) to describe the characteristics of patients who adopt the web portal-based disease management technology; 3) to develop and test targeted interventions to increase the adoption of the web portal and improve patient health behavior; 4) to monitor the ongoing costs associated with the web portal and patient healthcare resource utilization, and to monitor the incremental costs of the interventions designed to improve utilization of the technology and patient compliance with their diabetic regimens.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

1000

Phase

  • Phase 1

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

    • Ohio
      • Cleveland, Ohio, United States, 44195
        • The Cleveland Clinic Foundation

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

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria: Diabetic patients 18 years of age or older with an established primary care physician at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation

Exclusion Criteria: An individual not meeting the inclusion criteria

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: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Crossover Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Clinical Outcome Measures: HbA1c, LDL,and the presence or absence of clinically significant proteinuria.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Technology Adoption will be measured by tracking the patient usage of the various portal features

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Martin Harris, MD, MBA, The Cleveland Clinic
  • Study Director: Holly D Miller, MD, MBA, The Cleveland Clinic

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

September 1, 2004

Study Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2007

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

September 15, 2005

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 15, 2005

First Posted (Estimate)

September 22, 2005

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

July 27, 2011

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 25, 2011

Last Verified

July 1, 2011

More Information

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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