Contact information
Type
Scientific
Primary contact
Prof Paul Wallace
ORCID ID
Contact details
Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences
Royal Free and University College Medical School
Rowland Hill Street
London
NW3 2PF
United Kingdom
+44 (0)20 7830 2339
p.wallace@pcps.ucl.ac.uk
Additional identifiers
EudraCT number
ClinicalTrials.gov number
Protocol/serial number
HTA 96/02/05
Study information
Scientific title
Acronym
Study hypothesis
The project was designed to evaluate the feasibility of teleconferenced medical consultations (TMCs) at the interface between primary and secondary care. The key research objectives were:
1. To determine the views of specialists, GPs and patients about TMCs
2. To test the feasibility of TMCs
3. To determine which specialties are most suited to TMCs
4. To make plans for a randomised controlled trial of TMCs.
The key issues of interest related to the relative value of real time teleconferenced medical consultations (TMCs) as an alternative to routine outpatient referral. The study was designed to evaluate the potential of TMCs to improve patients¿ health and satisfaction, and to lead to more efficient usage of health service resources in terms of tests and investigations, procedures, operations and prescriptions. We were particularly interested to find out whether the joint consultations could reduce the number of outpatient and GP consultations following the index consultation. In addition, the study was designed to examine the educational and organisational impact of TMCs. The pilot study was carried out in order to test the feasibility of a full-scale trial. In particular we wished to find out whether we could recruit adequate numbers of patients, whether standard instruments could be used effectively to measure the key outcomes, and whether we would be able to measure the educational and organisational impact of introducing TMCs.
Ethics approval
Not provided at time of registration.
Study design
Randomised controlled trial
Primary study design
Interventional
Secondary study design
Randomised controlled trial
Trial setting
Other
Trial type
Other
Patient information sheet
Condition
Teleconferenced medical consultations
Intervention
Videoconference link (tele-consultation) versus routine hospital outpatients consultation
Intervention type
Other
Phase
Not Applicable
Drug names
Primary outcome measures
The following instruments were used in the trial:
1. A patient demographic and personal details questionnaire
2. S F12 generic measure of well-being
3. Ware Specific Visit Questionnaire (SVQ) for patient satisfaction
4. Speiberger Standing State Anxiety Inventory (STAI)
5. A patient cost questionnaire
6. Duke Severity of Illness questionnaire (DUSOI) to measure the co-morbidity or burden of illness
7. Protocol specifically designed to extract data for hospital and GP records
Secondary outcome measures
Not provided at time of registration.
Overall trial start date
01/06/1998
Overall trial end date
31/10/2001
Reason abandoned
Eligibility
Participant inclusion criteria
All patients referred by the participating general practitioners for a hospital specialist opinion in the following specialty areas: ENT medicine, general medicine (including endocrinology and rheumatology), gastroenterology, orthopaedics, neurology and urology
Participant type
Patient
Age group
Not Specified
Gender
Both
Target number of participants
2,094
Participant exclusion criteria
Not provided at time of registration.
Recruitment start date
01/06/1998
Recruitment end date
31/10/2001
Locations
Countries of recruitment
United Kingdom
Trial participating centre
Department of Primary Care and Population Sciences
London
NW3 2PF
United Kingdom
Sponsor information
Organisation
Department of Health (UK)
Sponsor details
Quarry House
Quarry Hill
Leeds
LS2 7UE
United Kingdom
+44 (0)1132 545 843
Sheila.Greener@doh.gsi.gov.uk
Sponsor type
Government
Website
Funders
Funder type
Industry
Funder name
NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme - HTA (UK)
Alternative name(s)
Funding Body Type
Funding Body Subtype
Location
Results and Publications
Publication and dissemination plan
Not provided at time of registration
Intention to publish date
Participant level data
Not provided at time of registration
Results - basic reporting
Publication summary
1. 2004 HTA monograph in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15546515
3. 2003 results in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12855528
4. 2002 main results in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12076550
5. 2002 publication on design and performance of the trial in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11835692
2. 2002 protocol in http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11835692
Publication citations
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Protocol
Wallace P, Haines A, Harrison R, Barber JA, Thompson S, Roberts J, Jacklin PB, Lewis L, Wainwright P, , Design and performance of a multi-centre randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation of joint tele-consultations [ISRCTN54264250]., BMC Fam Pract, 2002, 3, 1.
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Wallace P, Barber J, Clayton W, Currell R, Fleming K, Garner P, Haines A, Harrison R, Jacklin P, Jarrett C, Jayasuriya R, Lewis L, Parker S, Roberts J, Thompson S, Wainwright P, Virtual outreach: a randomised controlled trial and economic evaluation of joint teleconferenced medical consultations., Health Technol Assess, 2004, 8, 50, 1-106, iii-iv.
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Jacklin PB, Roberts JA, Wallace P, Haines A, Harrison R, Barber JA, Thompson SG, Lewis L, Currell R, Parker S, Wainwright P, , Virtual outreach: economic evaluation of joint teleconsultations for patients referred by their general practitioner for a specialist opinion., BMJ, 2003, 327, 7406, 84, doi: 10.1136/bmj.327.7406.84.
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Wallace P, Haines A, Harrison R, Barber J, Thompson S, Jacklin P, Roberts J, Lewis L, Wainwright P, , Joint teleconsultations (virtual outreach) versus standard outpatient appointments for patients referred by their general practitioner for a specialist opinion: a randomised trial., Lancet, 2002, 359, 9322, 1961-1968.