Clinical trial NCT02943109: High Tech and High Touch (HT2): Transforming Patient Engagement Through Portal Technology at the Bedside
Official title: High Tech and High Touch (HT2): Transforming Patient Engagement Through Portal Technology at the Bedside
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: Physician-Patient Relations
Inpatient Facility Diagnoses
Electronic Health Records
Outpatient
Keywords: patient portal
Health Information Technology
Electronic Health Records
Inpatient Care
Outpatient Care
Patient Engagement
Lead sponsor: Ohio State University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2016-10-24
Enrollment: 3782
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: FACTORIAL
Primary purpose: HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Brief summary: A large-scale randomized control trial (RCT) of the impact and use of an inpatient tablet-based patient portal embedded in a larger mixed methods study to examine changes in patient experiences and outcomes, and subsequent ambulatory patient portal usage.

Detailed description: The appropriate use of technology to actively engage with patients who suffer from multiple chronic conditions, called multimorbidity, is one of the frontiers of both research and practice. For multimorbid patients, engagement in disease management activities is particularly critical, and evidence shows that enhanced patient self-management can lead to better control of chronic illness. One tool finding increasing use is the patient portal, and its pervasiveness is supported by virtue of its role as a component of the Meaningful Use criteria. A patient portal is a tethered personal health record (tPHR) that links to the patient's electronic health record, facilitating communication and engagement activities with healthcare providers. While most tPHRs have been focused on outpatient activities, a new class of tools focused on the inpatient experience has begun deployment in 2014.

In response, this study supports the conduct of the first, large-scale randomized control trial (RCT) of the impact and use of an inpatient tablet-based patient portal embedded in a larger mixed methods study to examine changes in patient experiences and outcomes, and subsequent ambulatory patient portal usage. The investigators aim to study how access to a patient portal tailored to the inpatient stay can improve patient experience and increase patient engagement by improving patients' perception of the process of care while in the hospital (patient experience), increasing patients' self-efficacy for managing their chronic conditions (patient engagement), and facilitating use of a patient portal for care management activities after discharge (patient engagement).

The study site is a world-class healthcare facility with the ability to provide access to a patient portal designed specifically for the inpatient experience, bridging to outside the hospital after discharge.

Currently, this inpatient technology exists in only one other hospital in the US, but the investigators expect that as inpatient PHRs become more readily available, the need for clarity on this issue will only increase. The investigator's evaluation is a mixed-methods design consisting of primary data collection through surveys and interviews throughout the study period, and secondary data collection from the electronic health record and health system metadata. This study will offer insight into a potentially important mechanism to facilitate patient self-management.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion criteria:

* patient accepted MyChart Bedside tablet
* patient available in their room
* capable of providing informed consent

Exclusion criteria:

* Patient in a pilot unit where Full Tech was available prior to study start
* Patient was less than 18 years of age

Primary outcomes:
measure: Inpatient Portal Use Frequency
timeFrame: At hospital discharge.
measure: Inpatient Portal Comprehensiveness of Use
timeFrame: At hospital discharge.
measure: Inpatient Portal Functions Proportion of Use
timeFrame: At hospital discharge.
measure: Patient Satisfaction With Care - Responses From Healthcare Professionals
timeFrame: 15 days after discharge
measure: Patient Satisfaction With Care - Interactions With Healthcare Professionals
timeFrame: 15 days after discharge
measure: Patient Satisfaction With Care - Responses From Healthcare Professionals
timeFrame: 6 months after discharge
measure: Patient Satisfaction With Care - Interactions With Healthcare Professionals
timeFrame: 6 months after discharge
measure: Patient Involvement With Care - Questions About Health Management
timeFrame: 15 days after discharge.
measure: Patient Involvement With Care - Finding Answers to Health Management Questions
timeFrame: 15 days after discharge.
measure: Patient Involvement With Care - Tablet's Activities
timeFrame: 15 days after discharge.
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Outpatient Portal Adoption
timeFrame: 3 months post-discharge
measure: Outpatient Portal Frequency of Use
timeFrame: 3 months post-discharge
measure: Self-Efficacy
timeFrame: Baseline
measure: Self-Efficacy
timeFrame: 15 days post-discharge
measure: Self-Efficacy
timeFrame: 6 months post-discharge
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Columbus
country: United States
facility: Ohio State University
state: Ohio
Study officials:
affiliation: Ohio State University
name: Ann S McAlearney, ScD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: McAlearney AS, Sieck CJ, Hefner JL, Aldrich AM, Walker DM, Rizer MK, Moffatt-Bruce SD, Huerta TR. High Touch and High Tech (HT2) Proposal: Transforming Patient Engagement Throughout the Continuum of Care by Engaging Patients with Portal Technology at the Bedside. JMIR Res Protoc. 2016 Nov 29;5(4):e221. doi: 10.2196/resprot.6355.
citation: McAlearney AS, Walker DM, Sieck CJ, Fareed N, MacEwan SR, Hefner JL, Di Tosto G, Gaughan A, Sova LN, Rush LJ, Moffatt-Bruce S, Rizer MK, Huerta TR. Effect of In-Person vs Video Training and Access to All Functions vs a Limited Subset of Functions on Portal Use Among Inpatients: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Netw Open. 2022 Sep 1;5(9):e2231321. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.31321.