Telemedicine in Sleep Breathing Disorders: a Multicenter Study.

December 8, 2014 updated by: Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

In recent years medicine has been enhanced by the incorporation of technological innovations from areas as diverse as cell biology, biochemistry, genetics, biophysics and bioengineering. One of the few exceptions in this rapid process of implementing technological advances occurs in clinical medicine, where its penetration is much less effective than in other scientific and professional fields, or even in everyday life. Attempts to tackle this problem have given rise to various initiatives in the US and Europe, including Spain.

There is a surprising paucity of telemedicine systems in clinical practice, especially with respect to sleep-related breathing disorders, and most particularly obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), where protocols are urgently needed to alleviate this healthcare problem represented by its under-diagnosis and comorbidity, as well as the long waiting lists for treatment. In others words, the growing awareness of sleep disorders, especially OSA, has not been accompanied by strategic changes in the cost-effective diagnosis and/or treatment of these diseases.

CPAP therapy compliance is not always appropriate. Helping patients during the first two months usually determines compliance. Therefore, the development of strategies to support the patient during the first weeks is essential. However, this "collides" with reality, where it is difficult to properly care all patients because of congested sleep units. It is therefore necessary to implement new and imaginative control schemes especially at the beginning of the treatment. Patients' follow-up performed by telemedicine technology is an option that aims to substitute the face-to-face visits or at least reduce them considerably. In a future context, the idea is that the professional in charge of CPAP patients monitoring has on his/her agenda face-to-face visits and televisits (at distance) and information which patient will provide through online questionnaires with a certain frequency.

In this sense, this project aims to analyze whether CPAP treatment compliance of OSA patients monitored by telemedicine techniques (website and televisits) is similar to that achieved by standard monitoring but more cost-effective. The study design is a multicenter randomized trial with parallel groups and blind final evaluation after CPAP treatment following two different strategies: one through conventional monitoring in the hospital (face-to-face visiting) and another by telemedicine monitoring (non-contact visiting and website).

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

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

  • Spain
      • Barcelona, Spain, 08036
        • Hospital Clinic De Barcelona

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 to 75 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • diagnosis of OSA;
  • 18-75 years;
  • CPAP recommendation;
  • Informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Disabling hypersomnia;
  • Pregnancy;
  • Psychiatric disorders;
  • Previous treatment with CPAP;
  • Clinical instability in the previous month;
  • Inability to use information technologies (computers and web).

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?

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Active Comparator: Standard CPAP follow-up
Other: Standard CPAP monitoring
Experimental: Telemedicine CPAP follow-up
Other: Telemedicine CPAP monitoring (webpage and televisit)

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Quality of life
Time Frame: 6 months
6 months
Cost-effectiveness
Time Frame: 6 months
6 months
CPAP compliance
Time Frame: 6 months
6 months

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Hospital Clinic of Barcelona

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

Primary Completion (Actual)

September 1, 2014

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 29, 2012

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 29, 2012

First Posted (Estimate)

October 30, 2012

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

December 9, 2014

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

December 8, 2014

Last Verified

October 1, 2012

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • SEPAR-PII2011

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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