Automated Clinical Reminders in the Care of Chronic Kidney Disease Patients (ACRinCKD)

March 24, 2011 updated by: University of Pittsburgh
To determine whether the use of educational sessions and computerized clinical reminders can improve primary care doctors' delivery of care to CKD patients compared to educational sessions alone. Hypothesis: Clinical reminders will improve the care delivered to CKD patients

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Literature supports that most chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients are cared for by primary care physicians (PCP) without the help of a kidney specialist. Many of these patients fail to achieve targeted outcomes and late referral to a nephrologist has been associated with an increased risk of death. Automated computerized clinical reminders have been shown to improve physician compliance with recommended guidelines in other settings.

Aims: To determine if clinical reminders can help PCPs decrease the rate of late referrals, improve urine albumin checks in CKD patients

Design: prospective randomized controlled, single-blinded study with additional historical control

Methods: Two 20-minute teaching sessions aimed at all GIM PCPs in the UPMC clinic followed by randomization of the eligible GIM providers to receive automated clinical reminders (CR) for their CKD stage 3b-5 patients versus routine care.

Outcomes: Using a database search, individuals with an eGFR<45ml/min/1.73m2 (not seen by a nephrologist) will have data collected on: PCP referral to a nephrologist, urinary albumin (or protein) quantification in the past year, PCP recognition of patients with eGFR<45ml/min, ACE/ARB usage.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

248

Phase

  • 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
    • Pennsylvania
      • Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States, 15261
        • University of Pittsburgh

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:

  • For PCPs: all GIM attending physicians with a weekly continuity clinic.
  • For patients: >= 18 years-old with an eGFR<45ml/min/1.73m2 being seen in the UPMC GIM clinic by a faculty member during the 10-month intervention period

Exclusion Criteria:

  • for PCPs: imminent plans to leave the department
  • patients with a renal transplant, on any form of dialysis, or with a previous nephrology evaluation.

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
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: 1
education and automated clinical alerts
Other: automated clinical alerts
automated clinical alerts in the electronic medical record
Other: provider education
PCP education session on CKD
Active Comparator: 2
education session alone
Other: provider education
PCP education session on CKD

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
referral to a nephrologist
Time Frame: 12 months
Referral to a nephrologist within the 12 months following decision support system activation.
12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Use of ACE/ARB
Time Frame: 12 months
Active use of ACE/ARB at the end of the 12 month period following decision support system activation.
12 months
Annual ACR or PCR check
Time Frame: 12 months
ACR or PCR within 12months of the decision support system activation
12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Pittsburgh

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Khaled Abdel-Kader, MD, University of Pittsburgh
  • Principal Investigator: Mark Unruh, MD, MSc, University of Pittsburgh

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

December 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

December 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 28, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 30, 2008

First Posted (Estimate)

June 2, 2008

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

March 25, 2011

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 24, 2011

Last Verified

March 1, 2011

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • PRO07110299

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.

Subscribe