NCT02715791

TAPESTRY With Health Connnectors for Diabetes Management

Teams Advancing Patient Experience: Strengthening Quality for People Through Health Connectors for Diabetes Management (TAPESTRY-HC-DM): A Feasibility RCT

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 50 (actual)
• Sponsor: McMaster University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The TAPESTRY-HC-DM approach is designed to support self-management of chronic disease by strengthening connections between patients and the primary healthcare system through "health connectors" -both volunteers and technology including the TAPESTRY Healthy Lifestyle App and McMaster Personal Health Record (PHR). It will explore whether strengthening primary care connections across patients, providers, and community organizations through TAPESTRY-HC-DM - i.e., the deployment of volunteer health connectors coordinated by a community organization, the use of the TAPESTRY Healthy Lifestyle e-Application by patients, and care coordination processes by the interprofessional primary healthcare team - can increase self-efficacy in managing chronic conditions.

Detailed description

TAP-HC-DM is a feasibility randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving various pieces of intervention and their interactions to form a complex adaptive system. The purpose of the trial is to assess the effectiveness of the intervention not only through evaluating patient outcomes, but also through understanding the process of implementation and its fidelity to core elements. The trial will be conducted within the McMaster Family Health Team (MFHT) in Hamilton, Ontario. The MFHT consists of two sites, with approximately 30,000 patients, as well as 30 family physicians, 70 family medicine residents, 10 nurse practitioners and other healthcare professionals. Initial lists of potential participants will be created using an algorithm based on the inclusion criteria that will be run on the clinics' electronic medical records systems, with manual chart audits completed afterwards on an as-needed basis. The family physicians will then be asked to vet this list for further exclusion criteria. Patients from the list will then be sent a package including an invite letter from their family physician and a consent form. Participants who have consented, will receive a welcome call from volunteers who will then provide detailed description of the program and expectations. The clients will then be invited to sign up for McMaster Personal Health Record (PHR) and asked to complete the modules (Diabetes, Hypertension, Sleep, Exercise, Nutrition, Medications, PHR) on the Healthy Lifestyle app. After completion of the modules, participants will receive a report and suggested tip sheets based on their responses. Volunteers as health connectors will connect with clients weekly, providing motivation, education, tech support, and community connections. The healthcare teams at the clinics will also receive the report and will triage it in their weekly huddles. Any follow-up recommended by the clinics will be communicated to volunteers who will then work with clients on the given recommendations, or directly to patients.

Conditions

• Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus
• Hypertension

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	TAP-HC-DM	Patients randomized to the intervention group will complete the Healthy Lifestyle App modules. Their results will create a report with a suggested list of tip sheets that patients, volunteers, and clinics will see. Patients will also be encouraged to access the McMaster PHR in order to track their health, and communicate with volunteers or the clinic. Volunteer health connectors will connect with patients at least weekly, by phone, McMaster PHR message, or in person (depending on patient preference). They will be motivating, providing tip sheets or other education, doing tech support, providing community resources, and building a volunteer-patient relationship with the client. Clinicians will see and triage the reports, and may follow up on various aspects identified.
OTHER	Usual Care	Patients randomized to the control group will receive usual care and upon the end of the intervention arm of the study will receive the TAPESTRY-HC-DM intervention as detailed in the intervention group.

Timeline

• Start date: 2016-02-01
• Primary completion: 2016-12-01
• Completion: 2017-09-26
• First posted: 2016-03-22
• Last updated: 2017-10-04

Locations

3 sites across 1 country: Canada