42 Clinical Trials for Various Conditions
Quasi-experimental pre-post analysis of the rate of high-value and low-value care services between states that expanded Medicaid and states that did not expand Medicaid January 1, 2014, for adult ambulatory visits, using visit-level survey data from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey January 1, 2012 - December 31, 2015.
The investigators have developed a tool to facilitate asthma self-management in children, the electronic-AsthmaTracker (e-AT). The e-AT changes ambulatory asthma care delivery to a new model that is continuous and proactive, focusing on prevention and control, rather than reactive and focusing on management of asthma attacks. The e-AT 1) engages parents in weekly monitoring of their child's chronic asthma symptoms, 2) guides parents to recognize warning signs of asthma attacks in order to prompt appropriate interventions and timely visits to Primary Care Providers, and 3) provides Primary Care Providers with real-time, objective patient data to assess the effectiveness of asthma therapy and prompt adjustments. In a preliminary study of the paper-based version of the AT, frequent users had significantly fewer emergency department (ED) and hospital visits. Parent comments during the e-AT pilot testing revealed that the tool was useful in helping them manage their child's asthma and were interested in assessing the tool's effectiveness and in identifying and addressing barriers to their sustained use of the e-AT. Improving asthma control in children will be facilitated by broad e-AT dissemination, and by identifying and addressing critical factors that contribute to parent sustained participation in self-management. The investigators propose to assess the effectiveness of the new ambulatory care model supported by the e-AT and conduct an e-AT process evaluation, assessing barriers and facilitators of sustained parent use. The investigators will engage parents throughout this study to identify and address themes that matter to them. The target population is children with persistent asthma, ages 2-17 years. The investigators have engaged 10 parents since conception of this project, from the planning to design and validation of the paper-AT, and the design and pilot testing of the e-AT. Input from parents was received through 3 iterative focus groups (one for the paper-AT and 2 for the e-AT) and facilitated discussions to inform the development of this proposal including research objectives and outcome measures. In addition, the investigators have recruited other key stakeholders for whom the results of the research will be relevant.
Infants born prematurely or with complex congenital abnormalities are surviving to discharge in growing numbers and often require significant monitoring and coordination of care in the ambulatory setting. The specific aims of this project are to determine the effectiveness of a redesigned discharge process that includes a Health Coach and an expanded discharge binder to improve health outcomes in the post discharge follow-up period as compared with usual care. The outcomes to be evaluated include the occurrence of adverse events in the post-discharge period, quality of follow up care, and caregiver satisfaction with the process.
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs in response to an extreme traumatic stressor. It is estimated that as many as 1 million VA patients who were exposed to combat may have PTSD. VA patients with PTSD recently have been designated as a �Special Emphasis� population for which health care resources are allocated at approximately 14 times those allocated to patients without such chronic, complex, and intensive health care needs (i.e., �Basic Care� groups). Despite recognition of its substantial impact upon VA resources, the extent and means by which PTSD affects health and health care use remain unclear. This study seeks to enhance understanding of both the extent and means by which PTSD affects the health and the health care use of patients in VA ambulatory care. To meet this goal, we build on an ongoing HSR\&D project, the Veterans Health Study (VHS), a prospective longitudinal study of 2,425 VA ambulatory care patients.
The aim of this study is to construct a prognostic model to identify risks of poor outcomes at one year following hospital discharge of patients treated in an ambulatory cate setting. The study will incorporate pre-hospitalization characteristics, hospitalization events, comorbidity burden, psychosocial measures and post-hospitalization care characteristics to predict re-hospitalization and mortality at one year.
The primary objective of this prospective study is to develop a new method of classifying the prognosis of ambulatory patients according to their risk of long term mortality, institutionalization, morbidity (including the deterioration of pre-existing conditions or development of new problems) and functional deterioration.
Health care organizations, including the VA, are investing substantial effort to improve quality of care. As part of this process, greater emphasis is being placed on measurement of outcomes, and in particular, functional outcomes and satisfaction as reported by patients.
Regular outpatient follow-up is important for all diabetes patients, with some needing frequent attention because their health is unstable, their treatment regimen is complex, or their social supports are inadequate. However, many patients live with access barriers that limit their use of outpatient services, fail to attend outpatient appointments, and experience worse outcomes than trials of aggressive management suggest is possible. Although labor-intensive, telephone care programs are one potential strategy for bringing diabetes management services into patients� homes and improving their glycemic control. Automated telephone disease management (ATDM) systems can augment telephone care by providing frequent monitoring and health education to large patient panels while focusing clinicians� attention on individuals who need it most. Although this technology has shown some promise, it has not been rigorously evaluated, particularly in VA.
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of integrating ambulatory computerized physician order entry (ACPOE) and advanced clinical decision support systems (CDSS) on safety and quality domains in the ambulatory setting, including: a) medication monitoring, b) preventive care and chronic disease management, and c) test result follow-up. In addition we will evaluate the impact on organizational efficiency, physician workflow and satisfaction, and perform a cost-benefit analysis. We hypothesize that the value of ACPOE integrated with advanced CSDSS lies in improved medication safety and guideline compliance, but also improved efficiencies for the provider and the health-care system.
Many clinicians prescribe antibiotics for patients with acute respiratory infections even when antibiotics will not benefit the patient because the infection is due to a virus. To discourage this type of unnecessary antibiotic use, the investigators will assess whether it is helpful to give clinicians feedback on how often they prescribe antibiotics for respiratory infections in comparison to their peers. The investigators will perform this study across Urgent Care and QuickCare clinics within a single healthcare system.
Randomized controlled trial to determine the best brief suicide prevention intervention for adults and adolescents who screen positive for suicidal ideation or behavior in emergency departments or primary care clinics. Aim 1: Compare the effectiveness of two brief suicide prevention interventions (safety planning intervention plus structured phone-based follow-up from a suicide prevention hotline (SPI+), versus safety planning intervention plus caring contacts (CC)) to (a) reduce suicidal ideation and behavior, (b) reduce loneliness, (c) reduce return to care for suicidality, and (d) increase uptake of outpatient mental healthcare services over 12 months among adult and adolescent patients screening positive for suicide in emergency departments (EDs) and primary care clinics. Aim 2: Assess the acceptability of connection and support planning and the safety planning intervention, with or without follow-up among providers and clinical staff in EDs and primary care clinics. Aim 3: Assess the acceptability of SPI+ and SP+CC among adult and adolescent patients.
Do ambulatory RBC transfusions improve home functional status?
The purpose of this research study is to test the effectiveness of telephone-based early childhood developmental screening and care coordination, compared to usual care in a primary care pediatrics clinic. Investigators randomized 152 participants to one of two study arms, with the intervention families receiving developmental screening over the phone, and control families receiving usual care with their pediatricians.
The purpose of this study is to see if Glad Press 'n Seal works as a moisture barrier for central line that is left in place during ambulatory oncology clinical care.
The aim of this Phase III study was to assess the efficacy of idebenone on pulmonary function, motor function, muscle strength and quality of life in patients with DMD. Furthermore, the safety and tolerability of idebenone was assessed.
The Email Nudges to Improve GDMT (MRA) Adherence in Heart Failure (ENIGMA-HF) study is a pragmatic parallel-arm randomized control trial of a quality improvement (QI) intervention involving email nudges to cardiology clinic managers to schedule appointments specific to guideline directed medical therapy (GDMT) initiation, with the goal of optimizing mineralocorticoid-receptor antagonist (MRA) use by patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) cared for by cardiologists within the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Health System.
The objective of this study is to determine if early high volume intravenous fluid administration (hyperhydration) may be effective in mitigating or preventing complications of shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) infection in children and adolescents when compared with traditional approaches (conservative fluid management).
This study will determine whether telephone support improves clinical outcomes of veterans who begin outpatient treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either usual care or usual care supplemented by biweekly monitoring and support by telephone during the first 3 months of treatment. Patients in both conditions will be compared on PTSD symptoms, engagement in treatment, violence and drinking at 4 months and 12 months after entering treatment.
This study involves 3 phases that modifies current Interactive Preventative Health Record-Colorectal Cancer Screening (IPHR-CRCS) modules to address each patient's individual colorectal cancer screening (CRCS) knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and test-specific barriers. The study will engage patients, ages 50-75 years who are non-adherent to CRCS, to assess their CRCS test preferences and corresponding test-specific barriers in "real time". Based on patient characteristics (e.g. age, personal and family history, physician CRCS recommendation, CRCS test preferences, top test-specific barriers), tailored messages/videos will appear in the pop-up screens to address/reduce the top patient-reported, test-specific CRCS barriers while incorporating an action plan for CRCS adherence. The investigators hypothesize that modifying the IPHR-CRCS module to address each patient's individual CRCS knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and test-specific barriers will further increase CRCS.
The purpose of this study is to increase colorectal cancer screening by implementing a community-wide shared decision-making (SDM) intervention, which embeds shared decision making within clinical practice and also uses an extensive community engagement campaign. The investigators hypothesize that colorectal cancer screening adherence will be higher in the intervention group (participating communities) compared to the usual care control group (non-participating comparison communities).
Heart failure is a condition where the heart does not pump enough blood to the rest of the body. People with heart failure may have another condition called the "metabolic syndrome"( having excess fat in the belly, high blood pressure, high fat in the blood, low level of good cholesterol and high blood sugar). People who have both heart failure and the metabolic syndrome often see many doctors. A new clinic has been formed at Ben Taub General Hospital that includes a specialist in heart failure (cardiologist) and in the metabolic syndrome (endocrinologist) as well as patient teaching. The goal of this study is to randomize patients with the metabolic syndrome who are admitted to the hospital for heart failure to this clinic (collaborative care) versus the usual doctor appointments (usual care). The purpose of this study is to see if collaborative care is better medical care than usual care. Specifically, we will see if patients in collaborative care will have: 1. fewer admissions to hospitals for illness 2. better blood pressure, sugar, fat and heart failure control 3. better patient satisfaction and knowledge about their diseases 4. lower levels of inflammation.
The purpose of this study is to better understand outpatient prescribing errors through clinic and pharmacy-based error reporting systems.
An electronic referral application will be developed and integrated into the existing outpatient information system. The primary goal of this software is to improve the quality and coordination of patient care by increasing physician-to-physician communication. The investigators anticipate that improved communications will also enhance physician and patient satisfaction and provide cost savings. These outcomes will be formally evaluated following implementation of the application.
Clinical trial of implementation of clinical practice guidelines for managing hypertension in primary care clinics.
The aim of this study is to understand and improve the experience of patients after surgery by comparing two methods of following symptoms while the patient recovers at home.
In-home health monitoring devices have the potential to increase the speed and ease of modifying treatment for ambulatory patients living with chronic conditions. This study examines the implementation and effectiveness of remote data transmission from in-home devices (blood glucose meter/blood pressure machine) to the clinic on treatment outcomes in patients with diabetes who have out of range blood glucose (BG) or systolic blood pressure (BP) measurements. We test whether the short-term targeted use of in-home monitoring devices facilitates management for providers and improves outcome measures for patients.
In 2011, 38.6 million hospital stays occurred in the United States at a cost of $387.2 billion. 47.9 percent involved hospitalizations during which surgical procedures were performed. Orthopedic procedures constituted the most frequently performed and most costly of operating room procedures. As the healthcare climate in the United States continues to change, there is a trend towards providing effective care in a fiscally conservative manner. Central to this strategy is the shift towards increasing ambulatory surgical procedures from surgeries requiring post-operative admission for patients. While savings to hospitals and third-party payers are implied, there may be an unrecognized increase in financial, physical, and psychosocial post-operative costs to patients undergoing ambulatory surgery and to their caregivers. Rawal et al., and McGarth and colleagues have found that patients undergoing orthopedic procedures had moderate to severe post-operative pain. We propose to present a survey to patients and their caregivers before surgery and at multiple timepoints post-operatively to acquire information on the impacts of ambulatory orthopedic surgery. In addition to assessing post-operative pain, this study serves to examine various other possible burdens to patients that have not been previously evaluated in this patient population. REFERENCES McGarth B, Elgendy H, Chung F, Kamming D, Curti B, King S. Thirty percent of patients have a moderate to severe pain 24 hr after ambulatory surgery: a survey of 5,703 patients. Can J Anesth. 2004; 51:886-891. Rawal N, Hylander J, Nydahl P, Olofsson I, Gupta A. Survey of postoperative analgesia following ambulatory surgery. Acta Anesthesiol Scand. 1997; 41:1017-1022.
Does presentation of clinical evidence for decision making at point-of-care improve prescribing patterns in ambulatory pediatrics?
The purpose of this study is to understand the level of caregiver burden related to caring for a patient who goes home within the first 24 hours following surgery. As the caregiver they are providing care to a family member, friend, or neighbor. Even when not formally trained, the care they provide is important to the patient's recovery. Providing care in this manner can be stressful. This study will help us understand what aspects of the patient's recovery are most difficult for the caregiver.
The goal of this study is to determine if rapid outpatient evaluation vs hospitalization management is the best strategy (based on patient-centered measures and safe, equitable, and efficient resource use) for evaluating patients with acute chest pain who are at moderate risk for acute coronary syndrome (ACS). Patients will be randomized in the Emergency Department to either an outpatient evaluation (CARE-CP) or hospitalization evaluation for their symptoms.