Improving Communication About Patient Priorities in Multimorbidity (ICOM-APP)

April 24, 2018 updated by: Marsha Wittink, University of Rochester

Developing a Customized Care Intervention to Improve Mental Health Outcomes in Multimorbidity

The goal of this study is to develop and test Customized Care, an intervention to help patients dealing with depression and/or anxiety in the context of multiple chronic conditions. Customized Care is designed to help patients communicate about important issues, such as financial and safety concerns, with their primary care providers (PCPs). The intervention will be delivered in patient waiting rooms prior to a routine follow-up visit with the PCP. Phase 1 of the project will ensure that the main components of Customized Care are acceptable to patients and PCPs. Phase 2 will include a pilot study to test the effects of Customized Care on patient-PCP communication.

Participants aged 40 years or older who have a diagnosis of two or more common chronic medical conditions will be recruited from primary care clinics. Patients screening positive for either depression or anxiety will be randomized to Customized Care vs. an active control.

The investigators hypothesize that the Customized Care will improve patient-Primary Care-Provider communication.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Patients with depression or anxiety in the context of multimorbidity (2 or more chronic conditions such as Diabetes, Heart Disease, Arthritis, COPD, Asthma) are often preoccupied with day-to-day concerns related to issues such as finances, safety and functional ability. Determining which issues to discuss, and when to discuss it, is always difficult in the 15-minute primary care visit, but it is especially challenging when patients have multiple diagnoses, symptoms and concerns.

In this application the investigators will develop and test the feasibility of Customized Care, an intervention that capitalizes on decision technology and will be deployed in primary care waiting rooms. The investigators will assess whether customized care will improve outcomes among patients with depression and/or anxiety in the context of multimorbidity. Customized Care consists of two different components designed to improve health outcomes by improving patient-provider communication. The first component is a computer-based discussion prioritization tool (DPT). The DPT forces patients to make trade-offs between competing concerns to help them determine which are the most important to discuss. The second component is a customized question prompt list (QPL) to help patients communicate their priorities to the PCP. The QPL will be generated after patients use the DPT, and consists of question prompts tailored to the patients' priorities.

When patients express their day-to-day concerns, and PCPs become aware of these concerns, the patient-provider alliance can deepen. In addition, patient motivation (perceived autonomy, competence) to manage those everyday concerns and engage in care for chronic disease and associated mental health conditions will increase. This project will lay the ground work for a larger randomized trial to assess whether customized care can improve mental health outcomes among patients with multimorbidity.

The specific aims are:

  1. To assess usability of the Customized Care components (the DPT and QPL)
  2. To assess feasibility of Customized Care in primary care settings
  3. To conduct a pilot study of the effects of Customized Care on patient-PCP communication

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

60

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
    • New York
      • Rochester, New York, United States, 14620
        • Highland Family Medicine

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

40 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • patients attending a primary care clinic for routine follow-up care
  • age 40 or older
  • diagnosed with 2 or more chronic medical conditions including: diabetes, heart disease, arthritis, asthma, COPD
  • positive screen for symptoms of depression and/or anxiety

Exclusion Criteria:

  • non-English speakers
  • patients with a diagnosis of dementia or cognitive deficit
  • patients with acute medical needs requiring urgent treatment

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: Other
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Other: Care As Usual
Before the office visit with the PCP, patient participants in the Care As Usual arm will interact with the research staff who will help the participant use an iPad in the waiting room to complete baseline health assessments. Consented patient-participants will be told that the subsequent office visit with the PCP will be audio-recorded to assess patient-PCP communication.
Other: Care As Usual
Participants in this condition will interact with the research staff who will help the participant use an iPad in the waiting room to complete baseline health assessments. Consented patient-participants will be told that the subsequent office visit with the PCP will be audio-recorded to assess patient-PCP communication.
Experimental: Customized Care
Before the office visit with the PCP, patient participants in the intervention group will interact with the computer based components of the customized care intervention while in the waiting room. The research staff will help the participant use an iPad in the waiting room and direct them to the Discussion Prioritization tool (DPT). After participants use the DPT, the program automatically generates a customized questions prompt list (QPL) which will be printed out in the office. Study staff will hand the QPL to intervention patients to bring to their office visit with the PCP. Consented patient-participants will be told that the subsequent office visit with the PCP will be audio-recorded to assess patient-PCP communication.
Other: Customized Care
Customized Care consists of two components. The first component is a Discussion Prioritization Tool (DPT) which forces patients to make trade-offs between competing concerns to help them determine which are the most important to discuss. The second component is a customized question prompt list (QPL) to help patients communicate their priorities to the PCP. The QPL will be generated after patients use the DPT, and consists of question prompts tailored to the patients' priorities. Consented patient-participants will be told that the subsequent office visit with the PCP will be audio-recorded to assess patient-PCP communication.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Patient-PCP communication
Time Frame: from the beginning to the end of the patient-PCP office visit, average duration of 20 minutes
After the patient completes the experimental or active comparator intervention on the iPad, the patient will proceed with their office visit. The subsequent conversations between the patient and PCP will be audio-recorded and transcribed. We will use a coding scheme to measure communication during the patient-PCP office visit.
from the beginning to the end of the patient-PCP office visit, average duration of 20 minutes

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

University of Rochester

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Marsha N Wittink, MD, MBE, University of Rochester

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

June 1, 2015

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2017

Study Completion (Actual)

April 24, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

March 19, 2014

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

March 27, 2014

First Posted (Estimate)

April 1, 2014

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

April 26, 2018

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

April 24, 2018

Last Verified

April 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • MH101236
  • 5R34MH101236 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Yes

IPD Plan Description

Data will be made available on request once cleaned and initial analyses by primary team are completed.

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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