Evaluation of Ultra-portable Ultrasound in General Practice (EPEMedG)

Civil Hospices of Lyon

Status: Completed

Conditions: Intra-uterine Pregnancy or Extra-uterine Pregnancy or Miscarriage; Subcutaneous Abscess or Cyst; Hepatic Colic or Cholecystitis; Pleural Effusion; Phlebitis; Pneumonia; Fracture of Long Bones; Renal Colic

Treatments: Diagnostic Test: Ultrasound scan

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT04127149

69HCL18_1004

Details and patient eligibility

About

This is an interventional multi-centre study comparing two groups of general practitioners with or without an ultrasound scanner over a period of 6 months. The evaluation focuses on the management of patients for 8 pathologies:

• Pneumonia
• Pleural effusion
• Renal colic
• Hepatic colic or cholecystitis
• Subcutaneous abscess or cyst
• Fracture of long bones
• Intra-uterine pregnancy or extra-uterine pregnancy or miscarriage
• Phlebitis The principal hypothesis is that there are fewer complementary exams in the group of doctors using ultrasound scanners.

The secondary hypotheses are:

• There is better patient orientation (emergency care, specialist consultation, return home) in the group of doctors using the ultrasound scanners.
• The global cost of the care is lower in the group of doctors using the ultrasound.
• Using ultrasound during the consultation decreases the anxiety of the patient.
• Using ultrasound increases the duration of the consultation.
• There is no difference between the predicted and the real orientation of the patients.

Enrollment: 166 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• patients age 18 and over
• consulting their general practitioner for one of the 8 conditions below

Exclusion criteria

• patients who have already received an imagery exam for the acute episode justifying the consult
• opposition to participate

Trial design

Primary purpose: Diagnostic

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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166 participants in 2 patient groups

Group with ultrasound

Experimental group

Description:

The first group consists of nine general practitioners having received a brief training on the use of ultrasound scanners in general practice. The general practitioner includes all adult patients who are consulting for one of the 8 medical conditions studied and perform an ultrasound scan. Two weeks later, he/she calls each patient to collect the necessary data.

Treatment:

Diagnostic Test: Ultrasound scan

Group without ultrasound

No Intervention group

Description:

The second group consists of nine general practitioners. Each physician includes all adult patients who are consulting for one of the 8 medical conditions studied and performs a standard consultation. Two weeks later, he/she calls each patient to collect the necessary data.