Internet Intervention to Improve Rural Diabetes Care

NCT ID: NCT00403091

Last Updated: 2010-08-11

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

205 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2005-04-30

Study Completion Date

2010-04-30

Brief Summary

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Rural Diabetes Online Care (RDOC) will develop an Internet-based intervention for rural primary care physicians, focusing on improving care for adult patients with diabetes. The intervention, drawing upon the principles of quality improvement and providing tools for system-based changes in practice, is designed for the rural practice, where resources are constrained.

Detailed Description

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This 4-year randomized trial of an Internet-based intervention aims to improve guideline adherence by rural physicians caring for adult patients with type 2 diabetes.

Objectives. (1) Assess barriers to implementation of diabetes guidelines and identify solutions through focus groups and case-based vignette surveys; (2) Develop and implement an interactive Internet intervention including individualized physician performance feedback; (3) Evaluate the intervention in a randomized controlled trial; and (4) Examine the sustainability of improved guideline adherence once feedback ceases.

Methods. In partnership with the University of Alabama rural medicine program, we will randomize 200 rural physician offices to an intervention or comparison arm. Our 18-month intervention, customized to the individual physician in real-time, consists of Internet learning modules with case-based education, performance feedback, and benchmarks. The comparison group will receive a text-based, non-interactive Internet posting of publicly available resources. Nurse practitioners and physician assistants from the offices of study physicians may also participate in the Internet modules. Outcomes will be based on previously developed and validated quality measures for diabetes. The intervention will cover screening, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Performance feedback will include 10-15 charts per intervention physician. The main analysis, conducted at the physician level, will compare differential improvement in guideline adherence between the study arms. Ancillary analyses will examine the effects of physician characteristics, other providers in the office, and patient characteristics (e.g., comorbidities, ethnicity, gender, age, and socioeconomic status). Multivariable techniques will adjust for repeated measures, clustering of patients within physicians, and multiple providers within a single office.

Study Population. RDOC will enroll 200 physicians from rural Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Missouri, and West Virginia. Participating physicians will be randomized to receive the intervention or to a comparison group, which will receive traditional, text-based continuing medical education (CME). Each participating physician will allow two rounds of medical record abstraction to be conducted in his/her office. Results from the medical record review: (1) be used in the intervention to provide physicians with personal performance feedback and (2) used to examine change in performance for the intervention and comparison physicians as an evaluation of the entire study.

Significance. This study offers a technologically advanced, theory-grounded intervention for improving care of a high-risk, underserved population. With expertise in translating research into practice, rural medicine, behavioral medicine, health informatics, and clinical diabetes, our multidisciplinary team has a proven record of collaboration. This project will produce an evidence-based and replicable intervention that can be sustained in the "real world," and easily modified for other diseases. This project is substantially improved after making important changes recommended in the second review.

Conditions

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Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Participants

Study Groups

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Intervention

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Internet Intervention

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Internet-based intervention aims to improve guideline adherence by rural physicians caring for adult patients with type 2 diabetes.

Control

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Control

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

The comparison group will receive a text-based, non-interactive Internet posting of publicly available resources.

Interventions

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Internet Intervention

Internet-based intervention aims to improve guideline adherence by rural physicians caring for adult patients with type 2 diabetes.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Control

The comparison group will receive a text-based, non-interactive Internet posting of publicly available resources.

Intervention Type BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Rural Primary Care Physicians

Exclusion Criteria

* Non-rural non-primary care physicians
Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK)

NIH

Sponsor Role collaborator

University of Alabama at Birmingham

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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UAB

Principal Investigators

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Jeroan J Allison, MD, MS Epi

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Locations

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University of Alabama at Birmingham

Birmingham, Alabama, United States

Site Status

University of Alabama

Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

References

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Safford MM, Allison JJ, Kiefe CI. Patient complexity: more than comorbidity. the vector model of complexity. J Gen Intern Med. 2007 Dec;22 Suppl 3(Suppl 3):382-90. doi: 10.1007/s11606-007-0307-0.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 18026806 (View on PubMed)

Safford MM, Shewchuk R, Qu H, Williams JH, Estrada CA, Ovalle F, Allison JJ. Reasons for not intensifying medications: differentiating "clinical inertia" from appropriate care. J Gen Intern Med. 2007 Dec;22(12):1648-55. doi: 10.1007/s11606-007-0433-8. Epub 2007 Oct 24.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 17957346 (View on PubMed)

Foster PP, Williams JH, Estrada CA, Higginbotham JC, Voltz ML, Safford MM, Allison J. Recruitment of rural physicians in a diabetes internet intervention study: overcoming challenges and barriers. J Natl Med Assoc. 2010 Feb;102(2):101-7. doi: 10.1016/s0027-9684(15)30497-1.

Reference Type RESULT
PMID: 20191922 (View on PubMed)

Billue KL, Safford MM, Salanitro AH, Houston TK, Curry W, Kim Y, Allison JJ, Estrada CA. Medication intensification in diabetes in rural primary care: a cluster-randomised effectiveness trial. BMJ Open. 2012 Sep 17;2(5):e000959. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2012-000959. Print 2012.

Reference Type DERIVED
PMID: 22991217 (View on PubMed)

Related Links

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http://www.ruraldoc.org

Rural Diabetes Online Care Project Website

Other Identifiers

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R18DK065001

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

X050111012

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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