Don't Throw Your Heart Away: Patient Study 4

NCT ID: NCT04809051

Last Updated: 2024-02-14

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 94 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-04-01
• Study Completion Date: 2023-08-31

Brief Summary

This empirical study tests whether transplant center performance data that reflect center donor acceptance rates influence patients and their family members to evaluate centers with high organ decline rates less favorably than centers with low organ decline rates. 400 transplant patients and family members will be recruited from transplant support group social media websites and randomized to one of four different information presentation conditions. Upon viewing a pair of outcome tables corresponding to their condition, the participants are asked to choose which hospital is higher performing (one hospital with a non-selective "accepting" strategy and one hospital with a more selective "cherrypicking" strategy.

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 Transplant Pictograph

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. The "survival following transplant" metric is displayed as a survival rate pictograph corresponding to all patients at the center who received transplants.

Group Type: NO_INTERVENTION

No interventions assigned to this group

Condition 2: Stratified Transplant Pictograph

Participants randomized to Condition 2 will view only stratified transplant survival outcome information when making a choice between the two hospitals. The "survival following transplant" metric is displayed as a pair of survival rate pictographs corresponding to two distinct groups of transplant patients at the center: those who received optimal donor organs and those who received adequate donor organs.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Stratified Transplant Survival Metric

Intervention Type: OTHER

Both transplant metric conditions display the number of hearts offered to each center, the number of hearts accepted by each center, and the number of transplants performed at each center (in a year), in addition to the condition-specific metrics below. The stratified condition instead features a pair of values corresponding to each center's offers/acceptances/transplant survival rates for donor hearts of "optimal" or "adequate" quality.

Condition 3: Combined Transplant SRTR

Participants randomized to Condition 3 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. The "survival following transplant" metric is displayed as a quintile score corresponding to all patients at the center who received transplants.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

SRTR Information Format

Intervention Type: OTHER

The information format varies based on how the transplant hospital statistics are organized when presented to participants on the choice screen. The SRTR conditions mimic the information format present on the SRTR public reporting website.

Condition 4: Stratified Transplant SRTR

Participants randomized to Condition 4 will view only stratified transplant survival outcome information when making a choice between the two hospitals. The "survival following transplant" metric is displayed as a pair of quintile scores corresponding to two distinct groups of transplant patients at the center: those who received optimal donor organs and those who received adequate donor organs.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

Stratified Transplant Survival Metric

Intervention Type: OTHER

Both transplant metric conditions display the number of hearts offered to each center, the number of hearts accepted by each center, and the number of transplants performed at each center (in a year), in addition to the condition-specific metrics below. The stratified condition instead features a pair of values corresponding to each center's offers/acceptances/transplant survival rates for donor hearts of "optimal" or "adequate" quality.

SRTR Information Format

Intervention Type: OTHER

The information format varies based on how the transplant hospital statistics are organized when presented to participants on the choice screen. The SRTR conditions mimic the information format present on the SRTR public reporting website.

Interventions

Stratified Transplant Survival Metric

Both transplant metric conditions display the number of hearts offered to each center, the number of hearts accepted by each center, and the number of transplants performed at each center (in a year), in addition to the condition-specific metrics below. The stratified condition instead features a pair of values corresponding to each center's offers/acceptances/transplant survival rates for donor hearts of "optimal" or "adequate" quality.

Intervention Type: OTHER

SRTR Information Format

The information format varies based on how the transplant hospital statistics are organized when presented to participants on the choice screen. The SRTR conditions mimic the information format present on the SRTR public reporting website.

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 be a pre- or post-transplant patient or family member of the transplant patient

Exclusion Criteria

Participants who do not meet the primary criterion of being a pre- or post-transplant patient or family member of the transplant patient.

• 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, MS

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Carnegie Mellon University

Locations

Carnegie Mellon University

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Countries

United States

Other Identifiers

1F30HL152526-01

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

1 F30 HL152526-01-D

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id