Automated Hovering to Improve Medication Adherence Among Myocardial Infarction Patients (Heartstrong)

University of Pennsylvania

Status: Completed

Conditions: Patients With Principal or Secondary Diagnosis Code of Intrntl Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, (ICD-9-CM) 410 (Except When 5th Digit Was 2)

Treatments: Behavioral: Electronic Pill Bottle, Incentives, Social Influence

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01800201

817179

1C1CMS331009-01-00 (Other Grant/Funding Number)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this proposal is to test the implementation of an innovative approach to improving health and lowering cost for a high risk population of patients with acute myocardial infarction (AMI) immediately post-hospitalization. The investigators will implement a new service delivery approach that will provide a foundation for a payment system that rewards keeping high-risk patients healthy and that deploys technology and a health care workforce of the future to implement prevention, care coordination, care process re-engineering, team-based care, and the use of data to support new care delivery models. This program is focused on coronary artery disease (CAD), but we expect that a successful implementation of this model will demonstrate a sustainable pathway to the three-part aim not just for CAD, but for many other conditions whose outcomes are highly sensitive to post-discharge coordination.

This proposal has three main principles:

1. Principles of behavioral economics that have been developed, refined, and tested over the past decade offer practical insights into health behaviors that were previously unavailable and are not reflected in existing care models.
2. New technology, typically wireless devices for pill bottles, and mobile telephones, make engagement with patients substantially easier and more immediate now than ever before.
3. While randomized clinical intervention trials provide exceptional confidence of comparative effectiveness in narrow interventions, they are slow and rigid and dont reflect the urgency that health care transformation currently requires. Principles of rapid cycle innovation are gaining acceptance as an alternative to or supplement of these traditional methods in supporting evidence for implementation success.

Full description

The specific aims of this study are to:

1. Test the effectiveness of a state-of-the-art web-based portal with home-based wireless medication adherence devices and behavioral economic feedback mechanisms in preventing vascular events or re-hospitalization in the 12 months following hospital admission for AMI
2. Deploy a new model of evidence based evolutionary learning that uses rapid cycle innovation in 3 successive planning cycles over the 36 months of this proposal

Patients will be randomized into 1 of the 2 study groups.

1. The control group will have their health insurance claims records analyzed over a 12 month period for comparison to the participants in the intervention arm.
2. The intervention group:

(1) will use the GlowCaps, a remote monitoring and reminder pill bottle; (2) will be assigned an engagement advisor from the study team; (3) be asked to provide the study team with names and contact information of up to 3 family members or friends as support partners for medication adherence; (4) will be eligible for daily sweepstakes-based engagement incentives in which eligibility to win will be conditional on medication adherence; (5) can choose to modify their preferences for Way to Health platform communication methods during the study.

The group receiving the program intervention will also have their claims data analyzed for the 12 months post-enrollment.

Enrollment: 1,509 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 80 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Patients admitted to hospitals throughout New Jersey or at the University of Pennsylvania Health System who are discharged (or scheduled to be discharged) to their homes with a principal or secondary diagnosis code of International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) 410 (except when the fifth digit was 2)
• a length of stay of 1 to 180 days
• Aged 18 to 80 years
• Be discharged to home
• Prescribed at least 2 of these 4 medication categories (statin, aspirin, beta-blocker, anti-platelet)

Exclusion criteria

• cannot give consent
• have a markedly shortened life expectancy (diagnosis of metastatic cancer, end-stage renal disease on dialysis, or dementia)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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1,509 participants in 2 patient groups

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

The control group will have their claims data analyzed for a 12 month period. We will be examining these data for hospital admissions, new vascular events (AMI, stroke, acute coronary syndrome admission), or repeat or new cardiovascular procedures.

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

The intervention group (1) will use GlowCaps, a remote monitoring and reminder pill bottle; (2) assigned an engagement advisor from the study team; (3) asked to provide study team with names and contact information of up to 3 family members or friends as support partners for med adherence. The study team will contact these people in order listed until 1 agrees to this role; (4) will select a 2-digit lucky number to be used as part of the sweepstakes-based engagement incentives in which eligibility to win will be conditional on med adherence; and (5) will determine preferences for Way to Health platform communication methods.The group receiving the program intervention will also have their claims data analyzed for the 12 months post-enrollment.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Electronic Pill Bottle, Incentives, Social Influence