learning health systems

April 9, 2021: Taking Research to the Participant: Experiences with TREAT NOW, a No-Touch COVID-19 Trial (Adit Ginde, MD, MPH)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Adit Ginde, MD, MPH
Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Emergency Medicine
Director of Clinical Research, Department of Anesthesiology
Director, Colorado CTSI Trial Innovation Network Hub
University of Colorado School of Medicine

Topic

Taking Research to the Participant: Experiences with TREAT NOW, a No-Touch COVID-19 Trial

Keywords

COVID-19; No-touch trial design; Antiviral therapy; Adaptive platform trial; Repurposed drugs; Patient-reported outcomes

Key Points

  • The TREAT NOW trial evaluated the effectiveness and safety of early treatment with antiviral agents (lopinavir/ritonavir) in outpatient adults with COVID-19 for preventing hospitalization and improving clinical outcomes.
  • The trial used an adaptive platform approach with the ability to add or remove agents, and focused on repurposed FDA-approved therapies that are rapidly scalable and easily deployed.
  • The no-touch design required that the entire trial be completed without having any physical interaction with the participant.
  • TREAT NOW shows that no-touch trials are not only feasible but also effective. However, considerable effort was needed to get the smart data systems right. The data system must accommodate many different levels of technical skill, different languages, and different modes of communication.

Discussion Themes

What is the role of a site in a no-touch trial?

What was the most effective recruitment strategy?

What is the demographic breakdown of your participants?

Read more about the TREAT NOW trial on ClinicalTrials.gov.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

April 2, 2021: Lessons from COVID-19: The First Year of the REMAP-CAP Global Adaptive Platform Trial (Derek Angus, MD, MPH)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Derek C. Angus, MD, MPH
Chief Healthcare Innovation Officer, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Associate Vice Chancellor for Healthcare Innovation, University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences
Distinguished Professor and Mitchell P. Fink Endowed Chair
Department of Critical Care Medicine
University of Pittsburgh and UPMC

Topic

Lessons from COVID-19: The First Year of the REMAP-CAP Global Adaptive Platform Trial

Keywords

COVID-19; REMAP-CAP; Adaptive platform trial; Learning health system; Response-adaptive randomization

Key Points

  • REMAP-CAP (Randomized, Embedded, Multifactorial, Adaptive Platform Trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia) uses a novel adaptive trial design to evaluate a number of treatment options simultaneously and efficiently. This design is able to adapt in the event of pandemics, and increases the likelihood that patients will receive the treatment that is most likely to be effective for them.
  • REMAP-CAP is an international trial with multiple coordinating centers and 300 sites in 19 countries.
  • The REMAP-CAP trial was initially drafted with a prespecified Pandemic Appendix to be activated in the event of an emergent pandemic. In 2020, this mode was activated as REMAP-COVID, which expanded enrollment to include all hospitalized patients with clinically diagnosed or microbiologically confirmed COVID-19.
  • While adaptive platform trials are likely here to stay, there is a need to build comfort with the modeling, inference, and interpretation; build appropriate infrastructure to keep up with the power of the engine; and invest in common data models.

Discussion Themes

It is possible to design adaptive platform trials with a smaller sample size, depending on the research question.

How did you convince study teams to join your effort rather than start their own?

In the future, small trials could be hosted within the REMAP-CAP adaptive platform.

Given the massive inertia in investment to develop adaptive infrastructures, what are your thoughts for funders across institutions and nations?

Read more about REMAP-CAP and how the REMAP-CAP platform was modified to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

February 5, 2021: Generating High-Quality Evidence During a Pandemic: The Brazilian COALITION Experience (Renato Lopes, MD, MHS, PhD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Renato D. Lopes, MD, MHS, PhD
Professor of Medicine
Division of Cardiology
Duke University Medical Center
Duke Clinical Research Institute
Brazilian Clinical Research Institute

Topic

Generating High-Quality Evidence During a Pandemic: The Brazilian COALITION Experience

Keywords

COVID-19; Patient outcomes; Cardiology; Randomized clinical trials; COALITION; Levels of evidence

Key Points

  • The SARS-CoV-2 infection affects the cardiovascular system and is associated with complications such as myocardial ischemia, myocarditis, arrhythmias, and thromboembolic events. These manifestations result mainly from the intense systemic inflammatory response and disorders of the coagulation system. 
  • The COALITION collaborative includes several major Brazilian hospitals and research networks with the aim of accelerating multicenter randomized controlled trials that generate high-quality evidence to guide the treatment of patients with COVID-19.
  • To move toward a world in which most clinical decisions are supported by high-quality evidence requires structural changes in the clinical trials ecosystem.

Discussion Themes

How did you overcome contractual and regulatory concerns to execute your trials?

Instead of “publish or perish,” it should be “collaborate or perish.” Collaboration is the key to surviving in modern academic medicine.

Read more about the need for high-quality evidence to treat COVID-19 patients in Anticoagulation in COVID-19: It Is Time for High-Quality Evidence (J Am Coll Cardiol, 2020)

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

August 28, 2020: Designing, Conducting, Monitoring, and Analyzing Data from Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Proceedings from a Multi-Stakeholder Think Tank Meeting (Trevor Lentz, PT, PhD, MHA; Lesley Curtis, PhD; Frank Rockhold, PhD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speakers

Trevor Lentz, PT, PhD, MHA
Assistant Professor in Orthopaedic Surgery
Duke Clinical Research Institute

Lesley Curtis, PhD
Chair and Professor, Department of Population Health Sciences
Duke University School of Medicine

Frank Rockhold, PhD, ScM, FASA, FSCT
Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics
Duke Clinical Research Institute

Topic

Designing, Conducting, Monitoring, and Analyzing Data from Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Proceedings from a Multi-Stakeholder Think Tank Meeting

Keywords

Pragmatic clinical trials; Think tank; Risk-based monitoring; Data quality; Real-world data; Electronic health records

Key Points

  • Pragmatism in study design is not a binary concept: some trial elements are purely explanatory (to establish efficacy in ideal settings) and some elements are purely practical (to establish effectiveness in the real world). The study design must serve the research question.
  • Findings from the think tank discussions on best practices and actionable steps included:
    • Ask precise research questions, and select the appropriate degree of pragmatism.
    • Optimize data quality through study design.
    • Focus on primary endpoints in data capture to maximize likelihood of success.
    • Innovate on mechanisms for data capture.
    • Promote adherence to the study protocol.
    • Evolve trial operations staff to focus on data science and informatics.
    • Share learning experiences openly and widely.

Discussion Themes

There is a misconception that PCTs, because they pursue pragmatism, are less rigorous and conducted without proper oversight or adherence to a protocol. Quality by design and good clinical practice principles apply equally to PCTs.

Risk-based monitoring is a potentially dynamic system that could improve study safety and quality, and make better use of study resources.

There is great interest from regulators, sponsors, and the academic research community to move PCT methods forward. To achieve this, we need to see more examples of successful PCTs in a context of regulatory decision-making.

Read the proceedings from the think tank meeting published in Therapeutic Innovation & Regulatory Science.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

August 21, 2020: Adaptive Platform Trials: Scalable from Breast Cancer to COVID (Laura Esserman, MD, MBA)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speaker

Laura Esserman, MD, MBA
Director, UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center
Alfred A. de Lorimier Endowed Chair in General Surgery
Professor of Surgery and Radiology, UCSF

Topic

Adaptive Platform Trials: Scalable from Breast Cancer to COVID

Keywords

COVID-19; Adaptive platform trial; Study design; Learning healthcare system; Collaborative research

Key Points

  • Adaptive trial design is an innovative, collaborative approach with the potential to maximize learning about treatments so as to prioritize therapeutic agents and drive better patient outcomes.
  • Adaptive platform trials are designed to identify early endpoints that can be captured in the course of care. Multiple agents are evaluated simultaneously, and those with a potential for big impact are advanced quickly.
  • As a “learning engine,” adaptive platform trials could be used to accelerate high-impact treatments for COVID-19 and future pandemics.

Discussion Themes

Essential to an adaptive platform trial are checklists of data and nimble EHR tools that evolve as the disease evolves.

What is the process to monitor for and make the decision to modify the standard of care backbone?

Read more about adaptive platform trials at the I-SPY Trials website and a recent Grand Rounds presentation, Optimized Learning While Doing: The REMAP-CAP Adaptive Platform Trial.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

August 18, 2020: Grand Rounds Podcast With C. Michael Gibson on the Democratization of Medicine Is Available

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

In the latest episode of the NIH Collaboratory Grand Rounds podcast, Dr. Adrian Hernandez and Dr. C. Michael Gibson continue the discussion of how medicine and medical research are being transformed through patient empowerment and information sharing. Their conversation provides a deeper look into the power of social media and the role of physicians as citizen journalists, innovators, activists, and educators. The full August 7 Grand Rounds webinar with Dr. Gibson is also available.

July 16, 2020: New Publication Describes Unexpected Complications of Certificates of Confidentiality for Pragmatic Clinical Trials

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Judith Carrithers and Jeremy Sugarman, co-chairs of the NIH Collaboratory’s Ethics and Regulatory Core, recently published an article in the journal Learning Health Systems that examines the NIH’s Certificate of Confidentiality (CoC) policy for NIH-funded human subjects research. Since October 1, 2017, the CoC is issued automatically and applies to all biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and other research funded wholly or in part by the NIH that “collects or uses identifiable sensitive information.”

In their review of the CoC policy, the authors describe unanticipated challenges of applying the policy to pragmatic clinical trials, where the focus is on embedding research interventions in clinical care and which relies on existing data in electronic health records (EHRs). The authors identify 3 issues that are especially problematic in embedded pragmatic clinical trial (ePCT) settings and which may jeopardize the progress of learning health systems:

  • Whether the EHR may be populated with research data that may be sensitive or stigmatizing without explicit consent from subjects
  • Incomplete protections for sensitive data in the EHR
  • Requirements for notifying subjects about the policy’s provisions

The authors urge the NIH to provide formal guidance on the CoC policy as it pertains to ePCTs. Read the full publication online.

“Special attention should be paid to pragmatic research that populates the electronic health record with research data as well as research conducted without explicit consent.” – Sugarman and Carrithers

May 29, 2020: Advances at the Intersection of Digital Health, Electronic Health Records, and Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Experiences from the Collaboratory PCTs (Wendy Weber, ND, PhD, MPH; Jerry Jarvik, MD, MPH; Lynn DeBar, PhD, MPH; Doug Zatzick, MD; Vince Mor, PhD)

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

Speakers

Guest Moderator
Wendy Weber, ND, PhD, MPH
Branch Chief, Clinical Research in Complementary and Integrative Health
Division of Extramural Research
National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, NIH

Panel
Jeffrey (Jerry) G. Jarvik, MD, MPH
LIRE NIH Collaboratory Trials
Professor of Radiology, Neurological Surgery and Health Services
Adjunct Professor of Pharmacy and Orthopedics & Sports Medicine
Co-Director, Comparative Effectiveness, Cost and Outcomes Research Center
Director, UW CLEAR Center for Musculoskeletal Disorders
University of Washington School of Medicine

Lynn DeBar, PhD, MPH
PPACT NIH Collaboratory Trials
Senior Scientist
Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute

Doug Zatzick, MD
TSOS NIH Collaboratory Trial
Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
University of Washington School of Medicine

Vince Mor, PhD
PROVEN NIH Collaboratory Trial
Florence Pirce Grant University Professor and Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice
Brown University School of Public Health

Topic

Advances at the Intersection of Digital Health, Electronic Health Records, and Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Experiences from the Collaboratory PCTs

Keywords

EHRs; PCTs; Embedded PCTs; NIH Collaboratory; NIH Collaboratory Trial; PROVEN; LIRE; PPACT; TSOS; Patient-reported outcomes; PROs; Data collection

Key Points

  • Lessons and experiences from the NIH Collaboratory Trials include:
    • Pilot the intervention at the partnering health systems and work closely with site programmers who know the systems best.
    • Monitor the trial’s implementation at regular intervals to detect breakage.
    • Keep both the intervention and the outcomes as simple as possible.
    • Choose endpoints that matter to patients and providers and that are captured reliably as part of routine clinical care.
  • Enabling rapid outcome ascertainment in large pragmatic trials can be a game changer.
  • The Emergency Department Information Exchange (EDIE) in Washington state is an innovative technology platform that can help with the collection of population-level administrative data for acute care follow-up and ongoing care plans.
  • It might be better to uncouple some types of patient-reported outcome (PRO) data collection from the routine clinical care visit.

Discussion Themes

A common theme throughout all the NIH Collaboratory Trial PCTs is how dynamic and ever-changing health care delivery settings are. The reality is that the trial as planned is often not the trial as piloted or conducted.

What type of education is most effective about how to use a PRO to inform care plans and decision-making?

There is nothing like a crisis (eg, the coronavirus pandemic) for people to do things that were before thought impossible. Now, the concept of a “visit” is changing, and there will likely be more uncoupling.

Read more about all 19 of the NIH Collaboratory Trials.

Tags

#pctGR, @Collaboratory1

May 19, 2020: New Updates to What is a Pragmatic Clinical Trial Chapter in the Living Textbook

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

The NIH Collaboratory regularly refreshes content in the Living Textbook in order to offer a robust collection of resources to the wider research community about how to plan and implement a pragmatic clinical trial. We invite you to explore recent additions to the introductory chapter What Is a Pragmatic Clinical Trial?

Highlights include information on the broader embedded PCT (ePCT) ecosystem, an updated table describing the 19 NIH Collaboratory Trials, a new illustration of the PRECIS-2 continuum, webinars on how to start a PCT, and more.

“The Living Textbook reflects a collection of expert consensus regarding special considerations, standard approaches, and best practices in the design, conduct, and reporting of PCTs.” – Dr. Kevin Weinfurt, Editor-in-Chief of the Living Textbook

Sections in What is a Pragmatic Clinical Trial include:

  1. Why Are We Talking About Pragmatic Trials?
  2. The Embedded Pragmatic Clinical Trial Ecosystem
  3. Differentiating Between RCTs, PCTs, and Quality Improvement Activities
  4. Pragmatic Elements: An Introduction to PRECIS-2
  5. Key Considerations for PCTs
  6. Additional Resources

May 14, 2020: Healthcare Workers Invited to Join the HERO Registry

Posted on by Gina Uhlenbrauck

The Healthcare Worker Exposure Response & Outcomes (HERO) Registry invites both clinical and nonclinical healthcare workers to share their life experiences in order to understand the perspectives and problems faced by those on the COVID-19 pandemic frontlines. HERO Registry participants could have the opportunity to participate in future research studies to improve the understanding of COVID-19 and beyond, generating evidence to help healthcare workers stay safe and healthy.

The HERO Registry is open to all healthcare workers, including nurses, therapists, physicians, emergency responders, food service workers, environmental service workers, interpreters, transporters — anyone who works in a setting where people receive health care.

Learn more about the HERO Registry and how to join.

Don’t miss the recent COVID-19 Grand Rounds introducing the HERO Program and get the latest information and resources on COVID-19 for clinical researchers.