eHealth Usability in Living Kidney Donation

USABILITY OF AN INTERACTIVE HEALTH TECHNOLOGY FOR KIDNEY LIVING DONORS ASSESSMENT: TOWARDS A STANDARDIZED INFORMED PROCESS

Several web portals for patients are available, but an assessment of their performance is scarce. This is of particular interest among candidates for kidney living donation. A crucial aspect of living donation is to provide standardized information about the risks of the procedure. In 2019 it was launched a personalized digital care path for kidney living candidates, which contains information about the donation process and facilitates the communication between clinicians, transplant coordinators, and patients, enabling telemedicine.

We aim to investigate living donor candidates' experience with the Health Village web portal and the digital care path for living donor candidates. The secondary aim is to investigate their attitude of living donor candidates to eHealth services.

Study Overview

• Status: Unknown
• Conditions: Living Kidney Donation
• Intervention / Treatment: Other: survey study

Detailed Description

Background. Several web portals for kidney patients are available, but an assessment of their performance is scarce. This is of particular interest among candidates for kidney living donation. A crucial aspect of living donation is to provide standardized information about the risks of the procedure. In Finland, the web portal Health Village contains general information about kidney diseases. In 2019 it was launched a personalized digital care path for kidney living candidates, which contains information about the donation process and facilitates the communication between clinicians, transplant coordinators, and patients, enabling telemedicine. The performance of this eHealth service has not yet been studied.

Objectives. to investigate living donor candidates' experience with the web portal Health Village and the digital care path for living donor candidates. The secondary aim is to investigate their attitude of living donor candidates to eHealth services.

Methods. A prospective cross sectional survey study. Participants will be all kidney donor candidates who have used the digital care path since its implementation in January 2019 up to 1.3.2021 (N=122). The surveys will include general data, the type of electronic devices in possession and the purpose of use. eHealth literacy will be assessed with the eHeals questionnaire. Platform's ease of use will be assessed with the System Usability Scale, and participants´ opinion about the digital path utility with six questions. These items will be answered with a Likert-scale. Finally, we added an open question for qualitative analysis.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Anticipated): 122

Contacts and Locations

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

All living donor candidates who contacted the living donor transplant coordinator, and were considered initially suitable for kidney donation.

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Living donor candidates from Helsinki area, from 2019 onwards

Exclusion Criteria:

• Living donor candidates from other areas of the country
• non-Finnish speakers

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Patient´s experience	Measured with Likert scale	4 months
Patient´s e-Health literature	Measured with Likert scale	4 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Gender differences	to assess gender differences in the use of eHealth	4 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Helsinki University Central Hospital
• Collaborators: University of Oulu
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Fernanda Ortiz, PhD, MD, Helsinki University Central Hospital

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Ortiz F, Giunti G. Usability assessment of an interactive health technology for kidney living donors: protocol for a prospective cross-sectional survey. BMJ Open. 2022 Jan 3;12(1):e051166. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-051166.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Anticipated): March 1, 2021
• Primary Completion (Anticipated): May 1, 2021
• Study Completion (Anticipated): October 1, 2021

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 7, 2021
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 7, 2021
• First Posted (Actual): March 10, 2021

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 10, 2021
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 7, 2021
• Last Verified: March 1, 2021

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: eHealth; value-based healthcare
• Other Study ID Numbers: eHealth/HUS/501

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: UNDECIDED
• IPD Plan Description: In the near future, we plan to extend the use of the digital care path nationwide. This might allow the participation of other centers in the future.

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No