Feasibility Study of Telemedicine for Dialysis Patients Awaiting Transplantation

NYU Langone Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: End Stage Renal Disease; Kidney Disease, Chronic

Treatments: Behavioral: Telemedicine Visit; Behavioral: Usual Care Visit

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03189212

16-02146

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine whether a telemedicine follow-up visit at the NYU Langone Transplant Institute is a feasible and acceptable alternative to a traditional in-center follow-up visit.

Full description

A six-month prospective randomized-controlled clinical pilot study to evaluate a new intervention for the transplant program: telemedicine (TM) visits. Researchers will target patients on the transplant waiting list who are currently undergoing dialysis. Currently, there are 234 patients on the transplant waiting list who receiving care at dialysis centers in the New York City area. Researchers will select the 10 dialysis centers having the highest number of patients on the transplant list in order to yield a target sample of 45.

Eligible participants will be randomized to 1 of 2 groups: (1) usual care (UC) which is the routine 6-month follow up appointment at the NYULMC transplant center or (2) TM visit conducted at the patient's dialysis unit as a replacement to usual 6 month routine f/u visit. Patients will be followed for 4 months post randomization to determine the number of days that elapse between randomization and routine transplant evaluation. As new clinic appointments are currently experiencing 80-day wait, a 4-month follow-up should be more than adequate to evaluate this primary outcome.

The intervention will be evaluated primarily in terms of efficiency, and secondarily in terms of patient/physician experiences, changes in waiting list status, and referral for living donation.

Enrollment: 15 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 19 to 75 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Receiving thrice-weekly hemodialysis treatment for 6 months
• On NYULMC kidney transplant wait list

Exclusion criteria

• Unable or unwilling to provide informed consent
• Unable to read or otherwise use an iPad (e.g. blind)

Trial design

Primary purpose: Health Services Research

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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15 participants in 2 patient groups

Usual Care Visit

Active Comparator group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Usual Care Visit

Telemedicine Visit

Experimental group

Treatment:

Behavioral: Telemedicine Visit