Skip to main content
OpenTrials
Completed

NCT Number: NCT01163474

Telemedicine in Cardiac Surgery: A Pilot Study

Telemedicine has been widely used in managing patients with neurologic disorders or mental illness. Telemedicine is defined as the use of medical information exchanged from one site to another via electronic communications for the health and education of the patient or healthcare provider and for the purpose of improving patient care. According to our knowledge, it has not been used to manage cardiac patients who need postoperative care after discharge from hospitals.

The use of telemedicine has the potential to reduce the cost of unnecessary travel by assessing the patient's postoperative status prior to making decisions as to whether or not a face-to-face consultation is necessary.

In this pilot study we will compare the accuracy of surgeons' decisions during follow-up visits via video-teleconference (V-Visit) to surgeons' decisions during traditional face-to-face follow-up visits (FTF-Visits). Both the V-Visit and the FTF-Visit will take place at the Houston Michael E DeBakey VA Medical Center on the same day. We will also ask both patients and providers to complete short questionnaires after each V-Visit regarding their acceptability of using telemedicine for these post-operative follow-up visits.

Information collected as part of this pilot study will be used to design a future full randomized controlled trial (RCT) on the use of telemedicine in evaluating post-operative cardiac surgical patients.

Completed

Looking for future studies?

Notify Me

Key information

Conditions

Coronary Artery Disease Arterial Occlusive Diseases Arteriosclerosis Cardiovascular Diseases Coronary Disease Heart Diseases Myocardial Ischemia Vascular Diseases

Age range

18 year and older

Sex eligibility

All sexes

Study type

Interventional

Phase

Early Phase 1

Primary location

Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Houston, TX

Houston, Texas, 77030, United States

About this study

The specific aims are:

  • To compare surgeons' decisions on patient disposition between V-visits and FTF-visits (gold standard).
  • To assess the acceptability to patients and surgeons of using V-visits in the postoperative care of cardiac surgical patients;
  • To assess the technical feasibility of using community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs) for delivery of postoperative cardiac surgical care;
  • To determine the recruitment rate for eligible subjects.

We plan to conduct this pilot study at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center (MEDVAMC) in Houston, Texas, along with satellite CBOC facilities in Lufkin and Conroe. Once the accuracy, acceptability, and feasibility of the use of video conferencing (VC) in the postoperative care for cardiac surgical patients are established, we will submit a full proposal to conduct a two-arm RCT in future.

Who can participate

Healthy volunteers accepted: No

Only the study team can determine whether someone qualifies for participation.

Inclusion criteria

  • Patients older than 18 years of age
  • Patients who have undergone one of the following cardiac surgical procedures:

Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and/or Cardiac valvular operations

Exclusion criteria

  • Patients who have undergone aortic dissection/aneurysm operations
  • Patients who have been diagnosed with atrial fibrillation

Treatment and study plan

Evaluate video clinic visit prior to Face-to-Face usual care visit

Other

Evaluate video clinic visit prior to Face-to-Face usual care visit

Other names: video teleconference visit

Primary outcomes

  1. Accuracy (FTF Decision on Patient Disposition vs. V-visit Decision on Patient Disposition)

    Time frame: 1 month

    Using CVT software and desktop webcams on the VA private network, "Virtual" CVT visits were conducted immediately prior to usual care of Face-to-Face (FTF) postoperative visits. Two independent surgeons reviewed the CVT recordings and made recommendations on patient dispositions. Accuracy was assessed by comparing the 2 reviewers' CVT decisions to the FTF decision.

Secondary outcomes

  1. Acceptability

    Time frame: 1 month

    Acceptability was assessed using a the Demeris 17-item Likert-scale questionnaire. Scale from 1 to 5 (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree).

  2. Feasibility

    Time frame: 1 month

Sponsors and collaborators

Lead sponsor

VA Office of Research and Development

Fed

Registry information

Important dates

Study start
2010
Primary completion
2011
Study completion
2011
First posted
Jul 15, 2010
Registry last updated
Aug 6, 2019

OpenTrials presents study information sourced from ClinicalTrials.gov. The official registry record should be consulted for the latest information.

View the official ClinicalTrials.gov record (opens in a new tab)

This listing is for discovery and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice, does not guarantee that a study is recruiting, and does not determine eligibility. Contact the study team and a qualified healthcare professional when considering participation.

Related clinical trials

Published trials that share one or more normalized conditions with this study.