Rapid Learning Healthcare System in Pediatric Surgery (RLHS)

Katherine Deans

Status: Completed

Conditions: Colorectal Disorders

Treatments: Other: Rapid Learning Healthcare System

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03131180

IRB16-00537

Details and patient eligibility

About

Engaging patients and families to take an active role in their healthcare leads to improved outcomes. Providing physicians and families with near real-time data on outcomes in children with similar medical conditions can allow families to form realistic expectations and take an active role in their child's health. It also provides physicians with near real-time feedback on patient-reported outcome measures to guide both conversations and recommendations for therapy at the point-of-care.

A rapid learning healthcare system (RLHS) is a system that merges clinical research and clinical care. It is designed to collect data during routine patient care and then utilize the data to rapidly generate evidence to improve patient care, provide information to patients and families, and track quality measures.

The investigators created a RLHS that integrates pre-specified data elements and validated surveys within the clinical workflow in order to operationalize automated research data collection and integrate predictive analytics into the electronic health record (EHR). Patients, caregivers, and physicians can access data in order to make informed, shared decisions about care and align expectations about outcomes.

Full description

Functional disabilities such as functional constipation, and congenital anomalies such as anorectal malformations (ARM) and Hirschsprung disease (HD), are the leading indications for colon surgery in children. While these diseases have low mortality rates and surgical techniques can effectively restore anatomy, these patients have persistent and significant post-operative morbidity around fecal soiling and/or constipation. In addition to impairing growth and development, this affects all domains of health related quality of life (HRQoL). Patients, families, and healthcare providers of children with these diseases consistently report that bowel management strategies that prevent soiling comprise one of the most important areas for high quality outcomes research.

Engaging patients and families to take an active role in their healthcare leads to improved outcomes. Providing physicians and families with near real-time data on outcomes in children with similar medical conditions can allow families to form realistic expectations and take an active role in their child's health. It also provides physicians with near real-time feedback on patient-reported outcome measures to guide both conversations and recommendations for therapy at the point-of-care. A rapid learning healthcare system (RLHS) is a system that merges clinical research and clinical care. It is designed to collect data during routine patient care and then utilize the data to rapidly generate evidence to improve patient care, provide information to patients and families, and track quality measures.

The investigators created a RLHS that integrates pre-specified data elements and validated surveys within the clinical workflow in order to operationalize automated research data collection and integrate predictive analytics into the electronic health record (EHR). To date, we have over 800 patients enrolled in the colorectal RLHS. Patients, caregivers, and physicians can access data in order to make informed, shared decisions about care and align expectations about outcomes.

The primary and secondary objective of this trial are as follows:

Primary Objective: To assess the ability of a RLHS to improve healthcare satisfaction in pediatric patients with complex colorectal diseases.

Secondary Objective: To assess the ability of a RLHS to improve patient-centered outcomes in pediatric patients with complex colorectal diseases.To characterize the usability of the RLHS by patients and caregivers.

Enrollment: 133 patients

Sex: All

Ages: Under 17 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• English speaking patients aged 0-17 years with a diagnosis of ARM, HD, or functional constipation referred to our CCPR clinic between July 1, 2016 through June 1, 2017.

Exclusion criteria

• Patients previously treated at CCPR, those who are non-English speaking, and those without internet access.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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133 participants in 2 patient groups

RLHS dashboard

Experimental group

Description:

Patients randomized to RLHS website access are given instructions on how the RLHS dashboard works both by phone and by email and are given open access to the RLHS dashboard website immediately after enrollment and before meeting with the CCPR clinical team for their consultation. Each user has an access code, which allows them to track their access. They maintain access to the website throughout their care in the CCPR. Patients in the RLHS access group complete the System Usability Scale (SUS; a 10 item questionnaire to evaluate software, websites, and applications) after use of the RLHS at consultation. Those in the RLHS access group also complete a 7-item exit interview either via phone or on REDCap.

Treatment:

Other: Rapid Learning Healthcare System

Standard consultation alone

No Intervention group

Description:

Those not randomized to RLHS access undergo standard consultation only.