Don't Throw Your Heart Away: Medical Student Study 2

NCT ID: NCT04176796

Last Updated: 2024-10-29

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 105 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2019-11-27
• Study Completion Date: 2020-03-31

Brief Summary

Publicly available outcome assessments for transplant programs do not make salient that some programs tend to reject many of the hearts they are offered, whereas other programs accept a broader range of donor offers. The investigators use empirical studies to test whether transplant center performance data (i.e. transplant and waitlist outcome statistics) that reflect center donor acceptance rates influence laypersons to evaluate centers with high organ decline rates less favorably than centers with low organ decline rates. 125 medical student participants will be recruited from University of Pittsburgh Medical School and randomized to one of two different information presentation conditions. Participants will be given an introduction to the donor organ match process, then asked to view the table of transplant outcomes corresponding to the condition they were randomized to. Each participant is asked to choose the hospital that they would consider to be "higher performing" between two hospitals: one hospital with a non-selective, "accepting" strategy (takes all donor heart offers), and one hospital with a more selective, "cherrypicking" strategy (tends to reject donor offers that are less than "excellent" quality).

Detailed Description

Publicly available outcome assessments for transplant programs do not make salient that some programs tend to reject many of the hearts they are offered, whereas other programs accept a broader range of donor offers. The investigators use empirical studies to test whether transplant center performance data (i.e. transplant and waitlist outcome statistics) that reflect center donor acceptance rates influence laypersons to evaluate centers with high organ decline rates less favorably than centers with low organ decline rates. 125 medical student participants will be recruited from University of Pittsburgh Medical School and randomized to one of two different information presentation conditions:

Condition 1 ("baseline" condition): view only combined transplant survival (e.g. transplant survival rate not stratified by number and quality of donor hearts accepted at each center)

Condition 2: view only stratified transplant survival (e.g. transplant survival rate stratified into patients who received excellent donor organs and patients who received less than optimal donor organs)

Participants will be given an introduction to the donor organ match process, then asked to view the table of transplant outcomes corresponding to the condition they were randomized to.Each participant is asked to choose the hospital that they would consider to be "higher performing" between two hospitals: one hospital with a non-selective, "accepting" strategy (takes all donor heart offers), and one hospital with a more selective, "cherrypicking" strategy (tends to reject donor offers that are less than "excellent" quality). In order to identify the decision process that underlies this choice pattern, the investigators will examine a putative mediator. Specifically, participants will be asked to rate the extent to which they considered patients' chances of getting an excellent heart, avoiding a less-than-optimal heart, and getting any type of heart when making their choice between the two hospitals.

Conditions

Cardiac Transplant Disorder

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH
• Blinding Strategy: SINGLE

Study Groups

Condition 1: Combined only

Participants randomized to baseline (control) arm Condition 1 will view only combined transplant survival outcome information (e.g. transplant survival rate not stratified by number and quality of donor hearts accepted at each center) when making a choice between the two hospitals.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Condition 3: Stratified only

Participants randomized to Condition 3 will view only stratified transplant survival outcome information when making a choice between the two hospitals.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Stratified Transplant Survival

Intervention Type: OTHER

The transplant survival rate in the table of outcome statistics is stratified into two groups: (i) patients who received excellent donor organs and (ii) patients who received less than optimal donor organs.

Stratified transplant survival is computed from survival rates of transplant patients who received each quality category of organ.

excellent transplant survival = [number of patients surviving after transplant with excellent organ]/[number of patients for whom excellent organ was accepted for transplant] marginal transplant survival = [number of patients surviving after transplant with marginal organ]/[number of patients for whom marginal organ was accepted for transplant]

Interventions

Stratified Transplant Survival

The transplant survival rate in the table of outcome statistics is stratified into two groups: (i) patients who received excellent donor organs and (ii) patients who received less than optimal donor organs.

Stratified transplant survival is computed from survival rates of transplant patients who received each quality category of organ.

excellent transplant survival = [number of patients surviving after transplant with excellent organ]/[number of patients for whom excellent organ was accepted for transplant] marginal transplant survival = [number of patients surviving after transplant with marginal organ]/[number of patients for whom marginal organ was accepted for transplant]

Intervention Type: OTHER

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

1. 18 years of age or older

2. must read and understand the information in the consent form

3. must want to participate in the research and continue with the survey

4. must live in United States

5. 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year medical student at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Exclusion Criteria

1. participants who do not meet primary criterion of being a 2nd, 3rd, or 4th year medical student at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

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• Minimum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes

Sponsors

Carnegie Mellon University

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Gretchen Chapman

Professor

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Alison E Butler, BS

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Carnegie Mellon University

Locations

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Countries

United States

Provided Documents

Document Type: Study Protocol and Statistical Analysis Plan

View Document

Other Identifiers

20PRE35120492

Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT

Identifier Source: secondary_id

1F30HL152526-01

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

1 F30 HL152526-01-B

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id