Community Access, Retention in Care, and Engagement for Hepatitis C Treatment

NCT ID: NCT03581383

Last Updated: 2023-02-01

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 657 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2018-08-21
• Study Completion Date: 2022-12-31

Brief Summary

The main goals of the CARE-C study are to demonstrate the effectiveness of HCV models of care in a rural state (A) to overcome barriers to HCV treatment uptake, (B) to increase retention in care, and (C) to broaden access to care. To achieve these goals the following two systems interventions will be separately implemented: (1) Implementation of the Psychosocial Readiness Evaluation and Preparation for hepatitis C treatment (PREP-C) and related standard of care best practice PREP-C related interventions facilitated by a social worker-patient navigator team, and (2) implementation of a modified ECHO model (with one patient visit at specialty center to include PREP-C and fibrosis assessment in contrast to standard ECHO model). To test the effectiveness of our two systems interventions 600 patients will be equally distributed into three study arms representing 3 care models: Arm 1: Current Care Model (management with current interdisciplinary team); Arm 2: PREP-C Model (management with expanded interdisciplinary team (social worker, patient navigator, PREP-C); and Arm 3: Modified ECHO Model (management with expanded team in collaboration with community providers). An additional Arm 4 was started January 2021 to follow subjects experience with HCV management and treatment via telemedicine.

Detailed Description

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) related complications (end-stage liver disease, liver cancer, and death) are increasing in the U.S., and extrapolated from U.S. data most of the estimated 49,200 patients with chronic hepatitis C in the state of Kentucky are untreated. In addition, the state of Kentucky is at the center of the rural opioid epidemic in the United States which has led to a dramatic increase in the transmission of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. HCV treatment uptake has been suboptimal in Kentucky despite the availability of highly effective, well-tolerated, timely limited treatment options due to multiple patient-, provider-, and system related barriers. Effective models of linkage to care, treatment, and retention in care are urgently needed to overcome the epidemiological challenges facing our rural state and put Kentucky on a path to planned elimination of HCV infection in the state. The demonstration of the effectiveness of new models of care in Kentucky which are appropriate to rural states will have great relevance and value to other states struggling with new HCV transmission and similar urgent need for effective models of linkage to care, treatment, and retention. Standardized care interventions expanding the reach of specialty providers (Project ECHO) and overcoming patient and provider related barriers to HCV treatment initiation (PREP-C assessment and interventions) have been evaluated, but the implementation of both models has been hampered by a lack of financial incentive, PREP-C has not been evaluated in rural populations, and the two models have never been used in conjunction.

The main goals of the study are to demonstrate the effectiveness of HCV models of care in a rural state (A) to overcome barriers to HCV treatment uptake, (B) to increase retention in care, and (C) to broaden access to care. To achieve these goals the following two systems interventions will be separately implemented: (1) Implementation of the Psychosocial Readiness Evaluation and Preparation for hepatitis C treatment (PREP-C) and related standard of care best practice PREP-C related interventions facilitated by a social worker-patient navigator team, and (2) implementation of a modified ECHO model (with one patient visit at specialty center to include PREP-C and fibrosis assessment in contrast to standard ECHO model). To test the effectiveness of our two systems interventions up to 1000 participants will be distributed into four study arms representing 4 care models: Arm 1, Current Care Model (management with current interdisciplinary team);arm 2, PREP-C Model (management with expanded interdisciplinary team (social worker, patient navigator, PREP-C); arm 3, Modified ECHO Model (management with expanded team in collaboration with community providers); and Arm 4, current Telemedicine care model (management with current interdisciplinary team).

The specific aims are:

Aim 1: To compare HCV treatment uptake within 12 months after the first clinic visit (time of enrollment) in all Arms 1, 2, and 3. It is hypothesized that (A) treatment uptake will be higher in Arms 2 (PREP-C model) and 3 (modified ECHO model) as compared to Arm 1 (current care model) as a result of overcoming patient level treatment barriers (such as ongoing substance use, psychiatric instability, non-compliance, loss to follow up) facilitated by implementation of the PREP-C assessment, PREP-C related interventions, and assistance of the social worker-patient navigator team, and (B) treatment uptake in Arm 3 will be non-inferior to Arm 2.

Aim 2: To compare HCV treatment outcomes (treatment completion and sustained virologic response, SVR12) in all arms 1, 2, and 3. It is hypothesized that treatment completion and SVR12 in arms 2 and 3 will be noninferior to arm 1 due PREP-C enhancement, even though expected additional patients who start treatment in Arms 2 and 3 are expected to have less favorable treatment readiness scores prior to PREP-C interventions due to higher rates of treatment uptake as hypothesized in Aim 1.

Aim 3: To compare retention in care in all 3 arms for patients who do not start treatment (within 12 months after initial appointment). It is hypothesized that retention in care will be higher in arms 2 and 3 due to implementation of PREP-C assessment and interventions, and the support through the patient navigator.

Aim 4: To record the treatment uptake and analyze patient experiences with telemedicine appointments in Arm 4, the telemedicine arm.

Conditions

Hepatitis C

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: FACTORIAL
• Primary Study Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Current Care Model (Control)

The Current Care Model will not have any intervention beyond the standard of care for Hepatitis C provided by an interdisciplinary team at the University of Kentucky.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

PREP-C Model

The PREP-C care model will provide Hepatitis C care with the standard interdisciplinary team expanded by a social worker and a patient navigator team. The social worker/ patient navigator team will use the standardized Psychosocial Readiness Evaluation and Preparation for hepatitis C treatment (PREP-C) tool and will guide PREP-C related interventions to overcome barriers to HCV treatment uptake and completion.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

PREP-C

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The Psychosocial Readiness Evaluation and Preparation for Hepatitis C Treatment (PREP-C) is an interactive online tool that enables providers to provide a thorough assessment of a patient's psychosocial readiness to begin Hepatitis C treatment, and make a treatment plan to improve treatment readiness.

Modified ECHO Model

The modified Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) Model will provide patient care through collaboration of the expanded interdisciplinary team (including social worker patient navigator team) with community providers.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

PREP-C

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The Psychosocial Readiness Evaluation and Preparation for Hepatitis C Treatment (PREP-C) is an interactive online tool that enables providers to provide a thorough assessment of a patient's psychosocial readiness to begin Hepatitis C treatment, and make a treatment plan to improve treatment readiness.

Modified ECHO

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The heart of the ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) model is its hub-and-spoke knowledge-sharing networks, led by expert teams who use multi-point videoconferencing to conduct virtual clinics with community providers. The key modification is one patient visit in the specialty center resulting in co-management of patients with data sharing.

Telemedicine Arm

The telemedicine Model will track outcomes and record patient experiences with HCV management and treatment with telemedicine.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Patient Telemedicine Questionnaire

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

The patient questionnaire includes questions about patient experiences with telemedicine visits with providers

Interventions

PREP-C

The Psychosocial Readiness Evaluation and Preparation for Hepatitis C Treatment (PREP-C) is an interactive online tool that enables providers to provide a thorough assessment of a patient's psychosocial readiness to begin Hepatitis C treatment, and make a treatment plan to improve treatment readiness.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Modified ECHO

The heart of the ECHO (Extension for Community Health Outcomes) model is its hub-and-spoke knowledge-sharing networks, led by expert teams who use multi-point videoconferencing to conduct virtual clinics with community providers. The key modification is one patient visit in the specialty center resulting in co-management of patients with data sharing.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Patient Telemedicine Questionnaire

The patient questionnaire includes questions about patient experiences with telemedicine visits with providers

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• First office visit for hepatitis C management
• Referred either (a) to the Hepatology Outpatient Clinic at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, Kentucky or (b) to a local community provider who can provide comprehensive care for HCV including HCV treatment in collaboration with the University of Kentucky as a spoke of the ECHO program
• Age 18 years and older

Exclusion Criteria

• Life expectancy less than one year
• Less than 18 years old

• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 99 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Gilead Sciences

INDUSTRY

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Jens Rosenau

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Jens Rosenau

Associate Professor of Medicine

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Jens Rosenau, MD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Kentucky

Locations

University of Kentucky

Lexington, Kentucky, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

17-0812-F2L

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id