clinical outcomes

May 17, 2019: The VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL): Design and Results of a Large Pragmatic Trial (JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

JoAnn E. Manson, MD, DrPH
Chief, Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Professor of Medicine and the Michael and Lee Bell Professor of Women’s Health
Harvard Medical School
Professor, Department of Epidemiology
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Topic

The VITamin D and OmegA-3 TriaL (VITAL): Design and Results of a Large Pragmatic Trial

Keywords

Pragmatic clinical trial; Dietary supplements; Primary prevention; Mail-based randomized clinical trial; Cancer prevention; Cardiovascular disease prevention; vitamin D; Omega-3 fatty acids

Key Points

  • The VITAL pragmatic trial evaluated the effects of dietary supplements (vitamin D and omega-3) on reducing risk for developing cancer, heart disease, and stroke in the general population.
  • Study recruitment involved nationwide and targeted mailings, media reports, advertising, and brochures. Retention included participant newsletters, incentive gifts, and honoraria.
  • Findings included that neither omega-3s nor vitamin D significantly reduced the primary endpoints of major cardiovascular disease events or total invasive cancer. Omega-3s did reduce total myocardial infarction by 28%, with greatest reductions in those with low dietary fish intake and in African Americans.

Discussion Themes

VITAL’s hybrid design—remote or mail-based intervention plus serial in-clinic visits in a sample—has advantages in promoting quality and cost-efficiency.

Next steps for VITAL include continued follow-up for 5 years; genetic studies; and fostering new ancillary studies through nationwide collaborations.  

Visit the VITAL study website and read more about the results of VITAL (Manson et al., New Engl J Med, 2019)

Tags

#dietarysupplements, #pctGR, @Collaboratory1

May 10, 2019: Treating Data as an Asset: Data Entrepreneurship in the Service of Patients (Eric Perakslis, PhD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Eric D. Perakslis MS, PhD
Rubenstein Fellow, Duke University
Lecturer, Department of Biomedical Informatics
Harvard Medical School

Topic

Treating Data as an Asset: Data Entrepreneurship in the Service of Patients

Keywords

Digital health; Health data; General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR); Data sharing

Key Points

  • The only 100% common element of digital transformation across all industries is data.
  • With data and digital transformation, patients are changing: They are active, connected, informed, and savvy.
  • Security, compliance, and privacy are different things.

Discussion Themes

Is there any hope of data sharing policies helping to bridge the micro and macro silos of healthcare data?

As data starts to flows through institutions, it ends up in multiple places. Part of sharing data is protecting a single source of truth.

If something is relevant to the bedside, it’s worth doing.

Read Dr. Perakslis’s commentary in The Lancet (May 2019).

Tags

#healthdata, #pctGR, @Collaboratory1

May 3, 2019: Effect of Financial Bonus Sizes, Loss Aversion, and Increased Social Pressure on Physician Pay-for-Performance: A Randomized Trial and Cohort Study (Amol Navathe, MD, PhD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Amol S. Navathe, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Health Policy
University of Pennsylvania

Topic

Effect of Financial Bonus Sizes, Loss Aversion, and Increased Social Pressure on Physician Pay-for-Performance: A Randomized Trial and Cohort Study

Keywords

Behavioral economics; Performance incentives; Evidence-based quality-of-care measures; Primary care quality; Pay for performance; Value-based medicine

Key Points

  • Pay-for-performance (P4P) programs are increasingly being used by health insurers and healthcare systems to incentivize physicians to practice higher value medicine, yet the evidence for P4P to affect quality and value of care remains mixed.
  • Behavioral economic principles in this study included increased social pressure and loss aversion added to larger bonus sizes to evaluate whether the intervention would lead to higher achievement of evidence-based quality measures.

Discussion Themes

Study findings included that, while a larger bonus size was associated with significantly improved quality for chronic care patients relative to a propensity-matched comparison group, adding increased social pressure and the opportunity for loss aversion did not lead to further quality improvement.

Attrition during the trial contributed some variability to the analysis.

Read more about pay for performance in healthcare in JAMA Network Open (Navathe et al, 2019) and NEJM Catalyst (2018).

Tags

#behavioraleconomics, #pctGR, @Collaboratory1

April 26, 2019: The VERITAS Trial: Virtual Exercise Rehabilitation at the Intersection of Evidence, Implementation, and Policy (Janet Prvu Bettger, ScD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Janet Prvu Bettger, ScD, FAHA
Associate Professor
Duke Department of Orthopaedic Surgery
Duke Clinical Research Institute

Topic

The VERITAS Trial: Virtual Exercise Rehabilitation at the Intersection of Evidence, Implementation, and Policy

Keywords

Rehabilitation; Virtual physical therapy; Patient outcomes; Physical therapy; Orthopaedic surgery; Total knee replacement; Digital technology; Telehealth

Key Points

  • The VERITAS trial evaluated the effects of physical therapy–supported virtual exercise compared with traditional home- or clinic-based physical therapy after total knee replacement. Outcome measures included 90-day health service use costs; patient-centered outcomes; and differential improvement from 6 weeks to 3 months.
  • The Center for Connected Health Policy found that while most states currently have established telehealth policies for primary care providers, these often do not include physical or occupational therapists.
  • Tele-rehabilitation facilitates communication between the patient and physical therapist in real time. The VERA™ technology provides a virtual physical therapist assistant for patients and clinicians, offering a digital interface that includes patient education, longitudinal functional assessments, telehealth video conferencing, personalized exercises, and remote monitoring of patient progress.

Discussion Themes

Study results support effectiveness and safety hypotheses: that tele-rehabilitation is noninferior to traditional physical therapy with respect to range of motion, walking speed, pain, or rehospitalization. However, it was not shown that the intervention is noninferior with respect to falls after hospital discharge.

Because virtual physical therapy interventions can save total costs, prevent readmissions, and improve mobility, it will be important to expand access to tele-rehabilitation and to advance policies that include physical therapists.

Read more about the VERITAS project and at ClinicalTrials.gov.

Tags

#telehealth, #pctGR, @Collaboratory1

April 19, 2019: Trauma Survivors Outcomes & Support (TSOS) Pragmatic Trial: Revisiting Effectiveness & Implementation Aims (Doug Zatzick, MD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Doug Zatzick, MD
Professor of Psychiatry
Harborview Medical Center
University of Washington School of Medicine

Topic

Trauma Survivors Outcomes & Support (TSOS) Pragmatic Trial: Revisiting Effectiveness & Implementation Aims

Keywords

Trauma outcomes; NIH Collaboratory Trial; Hybrid study design; Implementation science; Pragmatic clinical trial; Cluster randomization; Stepped-wedge design; Posttraumatic stress disorder; PRECIS-2; Mental health intervention

Key Points

  • The TSOS NIH Collaboratory Trial is a cluster-randomized, stepped-wedge trial conducted at 25 U.S. trauma centers. The intervention involves an electronic health record PTSD screen and a baseline PTSD and comorbidity assessment. TSOS is turned on at each site across 4 “waves.”
  • During the course of this hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial, two domains on PRECIS-2 (Pragmatic-Explanatory Continuum Indicator Summary) were scored as more pragmatic and one domain as more explanatory than at the outset of the study.
  • The study team developed a methodology for assessing TSOS implementation aims. Called RAPICE (Rapid Assessment Procedure Informed Clinical Ethnography), the method yielded findings around recurrent intervention and research staff turnover across sites; observations that some patients do not engage in the intervention; and ways to inform a priori secondary hypotheses that suggest per-protocol modifications to the original intention-to-treat analyses.
  • TSOS will present results at the 2020 summit of the American College of Surgeons with the potential to integrate findings into the College’s regulatory and verification processes.

Discussion Themes

Regarding the need to collect outcome data, there may be an important distinction between two aspects of “pragmatic.” That is, while collecting outcome data makes a trial more expensive (one aspect of pragmatic), it doesn’t necessarily affect relevance or generalizability (another, more important, aspect of pragmatic).

Might there be studies which, by design, are not aiming to be on the outer [more pragmatic] spokes of the PRECIS-2 wheel?

Read more about the TSOS NIH Collaboratory Trial.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1, @PRECIS_2

Podcast April 16, 2019: Development of Harmonized Outcome Measures for Use in Research and Clinical Practice (Michelle Leavy, MPH, Elise Berliner, PhD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

In this episode of the NIH Collaboratory Grand Rounds podcast, Dr. Adrian Hernandez sits down with Dr. Elise Berliner and Michelle Leavy to discuss the Development of Harmonized Outcome Measures for Use in Research and Clinical Practice. In the discussion, Dr. Berliner and Leavy explain the outcome measures framework and harmonizing outcomes in specific clinical areas.

Click on the recording below to listen to the podcast.

Want to hear more? View the full Grand Rounds presentation.

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Read the transcript. 

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April 12, 2019: Development of Harmonized Outcome Measures for Use in Research and Clinical Practice (Richard Gliklich, MD, Michelle Leavy, MPH, Elise Berliner, PhD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speakers

Richard Gliklich, MD
CEO, OM1, Inc.

Michelle B. Leavy, MPH
Head, Healthcare Research and Policy
OM1, Inc.

Elise Berliner, PhD
Director, Technology Assessment Program
Center for Evidence and Practice Improvement (CEPI)
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)

Topic

Development of Harmonized Outcome Measures for Use in Research and Clinical Practice

Keywords

Health outcomes; Patient-centered outcomes; Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality; Patient registries; Clinical data; Patient-reported outcomes; Value-based care; Electronic health records; Learning health system; Conceptual framework

Key Points

  • The goal of the Outcome Measures Framework is to create a common conceptual model for classifying the range of outcomes that are relevant to patients and providers across most conditions.
  • Harmonization of outcome measures is essential to comparing and aggregating results between and among registries, clinical research, and quality reporting, and to facilitating performance and value-based measurement.
  • A minimum measure set is the minimum set of harmonized measures that can be captured consistently in research and clinical practice.
  • Developing the framework used a stakeholder-driven process that categorized outcomes as clinical responses, patient-reported, survival, resource utilization, and events of interest for a sample set of 5 clinical areas.

Discussion Themes

The benefits of developing a core set of measures include reduced clinician burden and improved patient care.

How is this work informing the HL7 work group that is defining standards for registries?

Next steps include implementation of the minimum measure sets in EHRs, registries, and other research efforts; demonstrating the value of a minimum measure set; and encouraging adoption of the measures.

Learn more about AHRQ’s Outcome Measures Framework.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1, @AHRQNews

April 5, 2019: The ENGAGES Pragmatic Trial and the Power of Negative Thinking (Michael S. Avidan, MBBCh)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Michael S. Avidan, MBBCh
Dr. Seymour and Rose T. Brown Professor of Anesthesiology
Chief, Division of Clinical and Translational Research
School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology
Washington University in St. Louis

Topic

The ENGAGES Pragmatic Trial and the Power of Negative Thinking

Keywords

Pragmatic clinical trial; Surgery; Electroencephalography; EEG-guided anesthesia; Postoperative delirium; Older patients; Patient-centered outcomes; ENGAGES

Key Points

  • The ENGAGES pragmatic trial evaluated whether electroencephalogram-guided anesthetic administration decreases postoperative delirium incidence in older patients undergoing major surgery.
  • Delirium is a disturbance in consciousness or change in cognition for a short period of time as a consequence of a medical illness. 25% to 50% of older adults experience delirium after major surgery, and the number is even higher for ICU patients.
  • The ENGAGES trial found that, among older adults undergoing major surgery, EEG-guided anesthetic administration, compared with usual care, did not decrease the incidence of postoperative delirium.

Discussion Themes

Aside from the intensity of patient follow-up and the expertise needed to deliver the EEG-guided protocol, the ENGAGES study fulfilled the criteria for a pragmatic clinical trial as shown in PRECIS-2 ratings.

Clinicians participating in ENGAGES were not researchers but carried out the intervention on the ground. They understood the appeal of it and found it easy to implement.

With respect to study findings, instead of referring to “negative” or “null” findings, why not say, “this is what we found and these are interesting findings.”

Learn more about the results of the ENGAGES trial in JAMA (Feb 2019).

Tags

#delirium, #pctGR, @Collaboratory1, @WUSTL_med

March 29, 2019: ICD-Pieces: Lessons Learned in an Ongoing Trial (Miguel Vazquez, MD, George (Holt) Oliver, MD, PhD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speakers

Miguel A. Vazquez, MD
Professor of Medicine
Clinical Chief Nephrology Division
UT Southwestern Medical Center

George (Holt) Oliver, MD, PhD
Vice President Clinical Informatics
Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation

Topic

ICD-Pieces: Lessons Learned in an Ongoing Trial

Keywords

Multiple chronic conditions; Chronic kidney disease; Hypertension; Diabetes; Pieces™; Electronic health record; Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation; Primary care; U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Key Points

  • Improving Chronic Disease Management with Pieces™ (ICD-Pieces) is an NIH Collaboratory Trial that is implementing a novel technology platform (Pieces) to enable the use of electronic health record data in the management of chronic kidney disease, diabetes, and hypertension within primary care practices.
  • The aim of the study is to reduce hospitalizations, emergency department visits, readmissions, and cardiovascular events and deaths for patients with multiple chronic conditions.
  • ICD-Pieces is employing centralized clinical decision support across 4 large, diverse healthcare systems in addition to the use of Practice Facilitators within primary care.

Discussion Themes

In embedded pragmatic clinical trials conducted in real-world settings, it is important to anticipate changes over the course of the study, which could involve changes at every level, from staff turnover to changes in national policies or standards.

As one of the largest healthcare providers in the world for patients with chronic kidney disease, the VA has been an effective healthcare system partner in the ICD-Pieces trial.

When partnering with healthcare systems, it is important to align goals and plan together, minimize disruption, anticipate and adapt to changes, and create a sustainable foundation for future studies.

Learn more about ICD-Pieces on their website.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

February 1, 2019: Promoting Effective Advance Care Planning Communication in the Elderly: The ACP-PEACE Trial (James Tulsky, MD, Angelo Volandes, MD, MPH)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speakers

James Tulsky, MD
Chair, Department of Psychosocial Oncology and Palliative Care
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Chief, Division of Palliative Medicine
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Angelo Volandes, MD, MPH
Associate Professor of Medicine
Massachusetts General Hospital
Harvard Medical School

Topic

Promoting Effective Advance Care Planning Communication in the Elderly: The ACP-PEACE Trial

Keywords

Pragmatic clinical trial; Advance care planning; ACP PEACE; Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; National Institute on Aging; Palliative care; Video declarations; Goal-concordant care; Patient preferences

Key Points

  • Many people with serious illness die without receiving goal-concordant care, and patients over the age of 65 with cancer experience this disproportionately. Helping patients engage in advance care planning (ACP) can empower them to express and record their goals so that their care can be aligned with their preferences.
  • The ACP PEACE NIH Collaboratory Trial is a pragmatic, stepped-wedge, randomized trial of a comprehensive ACP program in oncology clinics at 3 health systems. It will involve a combination of 2 evidence-based programs:
    • VitalTalk teaches clinicians important communication skills in having empathic conversations with seriously ill patients.
    • ACP Decisions uses videos to promote planning and decision-making by patients and families.
  • The ACP PEACE study will monitor long-term outcomes to evaluate whether patients received the care they planned for and wanted.

Discussion Themes

The last element of the ACP PEACE trial is a video declaration (ViDec), recorded by a subset of patients. In recording the ViDec, patients are prompted by questions assessing their confidence with their decision, satisfaction, decisional regret, and patient-provider experience.

The ACP PEACE study team has a scaling strategy in place if the intervention proves effective. Implementing the intervention as standard of care will involve a culture shift from what is currently expected in health systems.

Read more about the ACP PEACE NIH Collaboratory Trial in the Living Textbook.

Tags

#AdvanceCarePlanning, #pctGR, @Collaboratory1 @VitalTalk, @ACPDecisions