Clinical trial NCT04611295: TELENeurological Support for Emergency Department
Official title: TELENeurological Evaluation and Support for the Emergency Department (TELENS-ED): an Open-label Clinical Trial
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Emergencies
Neurologic Disorder
Lead sponsor: Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Modena
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: Azienda USL Modena
First posted: 2020-11-02
Enrollment: 88
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NA
Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Primary purpose: OTHER

Brief summary: Open-label, non-inferiority, teleconsultation with televisit study to compare efficacy, safety and users satisfaction of a TeleNeurological Support versus "in person" neurological examination in the emergency department

Detailed description: The investigtors are going to perform an interventional, open-label study on the use of teleconsultation in the emergency department focused on neurological diseases other than stroke (for which a specific protocol already exists) in two Hospitals of Modena province, Italy.

The study is aimed at developing a remote neurological consultancy system (teleconsultation) for patients with acute neurological symptoms in charge of hospital facilities without 24-hour availability of neurologist consultant.

Pilot project setting: a) ED of Modena Policlinico Hospital in the afternoon, night, and public holidays, time windows in which the Neurologist consultant is not present at Policlinico Hospital; b) ED of Mirandola Hospital.

The project (enrolment) is expected to be developed over a period of 6 months in which 100 patients will be enrolled.

The primary objective is to assess whether a TeleNeurological Evaluation and Support for the Emergency Department can guarantee a faster but qualitatively not inferior diagnostic/therapeutic work-up if compared with in person examination, assuring the availability of all the necessary examinations and treatments with a consistent time reduction.

Secondary objectives: to determine if the usage of a teleconsultation physician for neurological evaluation compared to a conventional physician "de visu" in urgent but non-life-threatening neurological cases, is superior regarding 1) effect evaluation, 2) process evaluation, and 3) cost-benefit analysis.

Outcome and process indicators will be assessed and compared in the following groups:

* Experimental group (cases): a) patients who access the Policlinico Hospital ED in the afternoon and night-time and on holidays; b) patients who access the Mirandola Hospital ED during the period of the study.
* Control Groups: a) retrospectively collected data on neurological consultation performed by OCB Neurology for Policlinico Hospital patients in the same time slots in the same months of the last two years.; b) retrospectively collected data on neurological consultation performed by Carpi Neurology for Mirandola Hospital patients in the same time slots in the same months of the last two years.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Patients aged \> 18 years
* Symptoms related to possible acute / subacute neurological pathology, or worsening of known neurological pathology, for which the ED physician considers neurological consultation indicated / necessary.
* Signing of informed consent to remote neurological evaluation.

Exclusion Criteria:

* All life-threatening emergency cases, where the study procedure would interfere with clinical practice
* Patients with known neurological pathology or with clinical severity to such an extent that the need for admission to OCB/Carpi Neurology unit or to the internal wards of the Policlinico is immediately evident.
* Refusal of the patient/caregiver to perform remote neurological evaluation.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Teleconsultation clinical application
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Teleconsultation diagnostic efficacy
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Teleconsultation efficacy - hospitalization
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Time 'door to end of diagnostic process'
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Time 'door to end of neurological evaluation'
timeFrame: 6 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Cost-effectiveness
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Evaluation of the level of satisfaction of the users
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Evaluation of the level of satisfaction of the health personnel.
timeFrame: 6 months
measure: Teleconsultation failure
timeFrame: 6 months
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Modena
country: Italy
facility: Azienda USL di Modena
city: Modena
country: Italy
facility: Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria di Modena
Study officials:
affiliation: Azienda Ospedaliero Universitaria Policlinico Modena
name: Antonio Luciani, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
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