The Actuate-CBC Study (ACTUATE)

THE Actuate-CBC Study: Accelerating the Uptake of Telemedicine for Crisis Burn Care

The study team will use implementation science to accelerate the uptake of teleconsultationfor burn patients by 1) examining the relationships between clinician perceptions of acceptability, feasibility, intention to use, and actual use of burn teleconsultation 2) identifying the optimal process for burn teleconsultation and the barriers and facilitators for its use during a crisis or prolonged care situation, and 3) designing and testing the effectiveness of a specific, tailored burn teleconsultation toolkit intervention to increase burn teleconsultation use.

Study Overview

• Status: Recruiting
• Conditions: Telemedicine
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Tool kit

Detailed Description

The principal investigator's central hypothesis is that a tailored implementation intervention (toolkit) that integrates the known advantages of using telemedicine for burn consultation with new knowledge regarding clinician perceptions and the setting in which they work will improve the feasibility, acceptance, intention to use, and uptake of burn teleconsultation. The implementation intervention will enable rapid burn teleconsultation implementation under crisis circumstances and assist clinicians to virtually connect the person caring for a burn patient anywhere to the entire burn team's expertise. The study results will lead to more robust national crisis, wartime, and disaster response plans, improve quality of burn care, and decrease morbidity and mortality from serious burn injury, regardless of injury location.

• Study Type: Observational
• Enrollment (Estimated): 2183

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Kelly E Farraday, MSOD; Phone Number: 2152793718; Email: kellyfar@nursing.upenn.edu
• Study Contact Backup: Name: Amanda Bettencourt, PhD; Email: paamanda@nursing.upenn.edu

Study Locations

• United States
  • California
    • Orange, California, United States, 92868
      • Recruiting
      • UCI Health Regional Burn Center
      • Contact: Victor Joe, MD
  • Massachusetts
    • Boston, Massachusetts, United States, 02114
      • Not yet recruiting
      • Massachusetts General Hospital Sumner Redstone Burn Center
      • Contact: John Schulz, MD
  • Michigan
    • Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States, 48109
      • Recruiting
      • University of Michigan
      • Contact: Gary Verycruysse, MD
  • Minnesota
    • Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States, 55101
      • Recruiting
      • Regions Hospital Burn Center
      • Contact: Mark Johnston, RN

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

physicians and other staff members treating burn patients

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 18 years of age or older and
• are providing burn care to patients at the 4 burn centers and the non-burnhospitals are eligible for inclusion.

Exclusion Criteria:

• do not meet inclusion criteria,
• decline to participate or do not give consent to participate in the study, •
• directly express uneasiness about the participation

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Number of groups / cohorts

2

Cohorts and Interventions

Group / Cohort	Intervention / Treatment
RedCap surverys; The study team will use REDCap to send an IRB approved secure electronic survey	Behavioral: Tool kit; The study team will develop and design key elements of the implementation intervention (toolkit) among a small group of burn and non-burn clinician stakeholders (4-6 total). The study team will use in-person interviews with stakeholders and a semi-structured interview guide to elicit feedback and assess face and content validity of the toolkit elements prior to deployment across the study hospitals. For those who consent to participation, the study team will conduct virtual teleconference interviews in-person using a secure videoconferencing platform while the person is not working, at a time convenient for them. Interviews will last between 45 and 60 minutes. The study team anticipates conducting 4-6 interviews to finalize toolkit elements prior to implementation.
Interviews; The study team plans to do about 18-23 one-on-one interviews with clinicians (burn care nurses, physicians, advanced practice providers, therapists) or will progress until data saturation is reached.	Behavioral: Tool kit; The study team will develop and design key elements of the implementation intervention (toolkit) among a small group of burn and non-burn clinician stakeholders (4-6 total). The study team will use in-person interviews with stakeholders and a semi-structured interview guide to elicit feedback and assess face and content validity of the toolkit elements prior to deployment across the study hospitals. For those who consent to participation, the study team will conduct virtual teleconference interviews in-person using a secure videoconferencing platform while the person is not working, at a time convenient for them. Interviews will last between 45 and 60 minutes. The study team anticipates conducting 4-6 interviews to finalize toolkit elements prior to implementation.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Examine the relationships between clinician perceptions of feasibility, acceptability, intention to use, and the actual use of acute burn teleconsultation.	The study team will look at the differences in opinions between the Aim 1 and 2 interviews and surveys as well as the referral numbers being collected and compare that to the Aim 3 data from interviews and surveys as well as actual referral data to see if there is an increase in the use of telemedicine.	4 years

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Pennsylvania

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): January 4, 2023
• Primary Completion (Estimated): June 30, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): June 15, 2027

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 20, 2023
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 14, 2023
• First Posted (Actual): June 26, 2023

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): July 30, 2025
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: July 25, 2025
• Last Verified: July 1, 2025

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 850877

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

• Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?: NO

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No
• product manufactured in and exported from the U.S.: No