Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Research Protocols
Date Submitted: Jan 12, 2023
Open Peer Review Period: Jan 8, 2023 - Mar 5, 2023
Date Accepted: Apr 30, 2023
(closed for review but you can still tweet)
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
Remote patient monitoring and teleconsultation to improve health outcomes and reduce health care utilization of pediatric asthma care (ALPACA study): protocol for a randomized controlled trial
ABSTRACT
Background:
Childhood asthma is imposing a great financial burden on the pediatric health care system. Asthma costs are directly related to the level of asthma control. A substantial part of these costs may be preventable by timely and adequate assessment of asthma deterioration in daily life and proper asthma management. The use of eHealth technology may assist such timely and targeted medical anticipation.
Objective:
This paper describes the ALPACA study protocol, to investigate the effectiveness of an eHealth intervention consisting of remote patient monitoring and teleconsultation integrated in daily clinical care of pediatric asthma patients. This intervention aims to reduce health care utilization and costs and improve health outcomes compared to a control group that receives standard care. In addition, this study aims to improve future eHealth pediatric asthma care by gaining insights from home-monitoring data.
Methods:
This study is a prospective randomized controlled trial. Forty subjects will be randomized to either three months of eHealth care (intervention group) or standard care (control group). The eHealth intervention consists of remote patient monitoring (spirometry, pulse oximetry, electronic medication adherence tracking and asthma control questionnaire) and web-based teleconsultation (video sharing, messages). All subjects have a three-month follow up with standard care to evaluate whether possible effects of eHealth care are longer lasting. During the entire study and follow-up period, all subjects use blinded observational home-monitoring (sleep, cough/wheeze sounds, air quality in bedroom) as well.
Results:
The study was approved by medical ethical committee, enrolment will start in 2023 and results of the study are expected to be submitted for publication in June 2024.
Conclusions:
This study will contribute to the existing knowledge on the effectiveness of eHealth interventions that combine remote patient monitoring and teleconsultation on health care utilization, costs and health outcomes. Furthermore, the observational home-monitoring data can contribute to improved identification of early signs of asthma deterioration in pediatric patients. Researchers and technology developers could use this study to guide and improve eHealth development, while health care professionals, health care institutions and policymakers may employ our results to make informed decisions to steer towards high-quality, efficient pediatric asthma care. Clinical Trial: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05517096
Citation
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Copyright
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