Spaced Education to Optimize Prostate Cancer Screening

August 6, 2010 updated by: Harvard University Faculty of Medicine
Two memory research findings (the spacing and testing effects) can dramatically improve retention of learning, but they have largely have been ignored by educators. The researchers have developed a novel form of online education (termed 'spaced education') based on these two effects which has been shown in randomized trials to improve knowledge acquisition and boost learning retention. Using prostate cancer screening as an experimental system, the researchers investigated whether spaced education could durably improve clinicians' behaviors, not just their knowledge.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

95

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
    • Massachusetts
      • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02130
        • Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System

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:

  • Primary care providers (physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants) from the 8 Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals in the New England region (Veterans Integrated Service Network 1 [VISN-1]) were eligible to enroll.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Primary care providers (PCPs) who ordered PSA as a screen for prostate cancer less than 10 times each year were excluded.

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: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Spaced education clinicians - cohort 1
Spaced education clinicians receive four isomorphic cycles of 9 spaced education emails over 36-weeks (0-2 emails per week). Each email contained one question-explanation.
Behavioral: Online spaced education
Spaced education is currently delivered via periodic emails that contain clinical case scenarios and multiple-choice questions. Upon submitting answers to each question online, clinicians receive immediate feedback and educational material. The questions are then repeated over spaced intervals of time to harness the pedagogical benefits of the spacing effect.
No Intervention: Control clinicians - cohort 2
Control clinicians received no intervention

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Percentage of inappropriate prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening performed by clinicians
Time Frame: Weeks 1-108
The primary outcome measure was the difference in the percentage of inappropriate PSA screening performed by clinicians in the spaced education and control cohorts. Based on published clinical guidelines and reports, inappropriate PSA utilization was defined as the use of PSA for prostate cancer screening in patients >76 or <40 years old, or with an estimated life expectancy of less than 10 years.
Weeks 1-108

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in test scores between cohorts measured in weeks 1-36
Time Frame: Weeks 1-36
Weeks 1-36
Change in spaced education performance measured in weeks 1-36
Time Frame: Weeks 1-36
Weeks 1-36
Clinicians' intention to participate in future spaced education programs
Time Frame: Week 36
Assessed on end-of program survey at week 36
Week 36
Time required by clinicians to complete the spaced education questions-explanations
Time Frame: Week 36
Assessed on end-of program survey at week 36
Week 36

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Harvard University Faculty of Medicine

Collaborators

Wyeth is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer
Astellas Pharma US, Inc.
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
US Department of Veterans Affairs
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
American Urological Association

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: B. Price Kerfoot, MD EdM, VA Boston Healthcare System, Harvard Medical School

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

January 1, 2007

Primary Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2009

Study Completion (Actual)

February 1, 2009

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

July 20, 2010

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

July 21, 2010

First Posted (Estimate)

July 23, 2010

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

August 9, 2010

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 6, 2010

Last Verified

July 1, 2010

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • M15310
  • IRB# 1786 (Other Identifier: Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System)
  • 5K08HS017147 (U.S. AHRQ Grant/Contract)

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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