Postcards to Improve Remote Monitoring Adherence Among Veterans

US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

Status

Completed

Conditions

Adherence, Patient

Pacemaker DDD

ICD

Treatments

Other: Postcard

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other U.S. Federal agency

Identifiers

NCT06068699

VANCDSP QUERI Postcards

Details and patient eligibility

About

We tested the effect of informational postcards on improving remote monitoring adherence among Veterans with pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators in a stepped-wedge randomized controlled trial.

Full description

Objective: To test the effect of informational postcards on remote monitoring adherence among Veterans with pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs).

Design/Patients: Stepped-wedge randomized controlled trial among Veterans with pacemakers and ICDs.

Intervention: In wave 1, Veterans who had sent at least 1 transmission within the past 2 years but had become non-adherent were randomly assigned to receive a postcard or no postcard. Those receiving postcards were randomized to 1 of 2 messages: 1) a "warning" postcard describing risks of non-adherence or 2) an "encouraging" postcard describing benefits of adherence. In wave 2, Veterans who had either not received a postcard in wave 1 or had since become non-adherent were mailed a postcard (again, randomized to 1 of 2 messages). Patients who did not send a remote monitoring transmission within 1 month were mailed a second, identical postcard.

Main Measures: Proportion of patients who sent a transmission within 70 days.

Enrollment

6,351 patients

Sex

All

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Veteran patients with wireless RM-capable pacemakers and ICDs followed by the VA National Cardiac Device Surveillance Program (VANCDSP)
Sent at least 1 remote transmission within the past 2 years but had become non-adherent (defined as missing their last scheduled transmission by at least 10 days)

Exclusion criteria