NCT03466996

Telemedicine in Spina Bifida Transition: A Pilot Study

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 24 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Alabama at Birmingham · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 13 Years – 25 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

The purpose of this study is to explore the feasibility and efficacy of using telemedicine to improve transition from pediatric to adult care in patients with spina bifida.

Detailed description

After enrollment, patients will be randomly assigned to either the control or intervention group. Randomization will be performed using computer software with 1:1 group allocation. We anticipate 26 participants in each group. The control group will receive the current standard of care transition program which includes goal-setting at their annual Multidisciplinary Spina Bifida Clinic visit. Additionally, they will receive encouragement e-mail and text messages. These messages will be sent at 2 weeks, 3 months, 6 months, and 9 months from last in-person appointment. The intervention group will participate in face-to-face video telemedicine visits, in addition to routine yearly visits to the Spina Bifida Clinic. These 30-minute visits will occur at 2 weeks, 3 months, 6 months and 9 months from last in-person clinic appointment. The visits will consist of structured counseling using a plan-do-study-act cycle approach to incrementally adopt elements of a well-planned transition. Using qualitative notes from each session, I hypothesize that I will be able to identify common themes or challenges across patients and develop adjunctive education, support, and monitoring tools for patients and families in transition. I will collaborate with experts from orthopedic surgery, physical medicine and rehabilitation, urology, neurosurgery, nutrition, and psychology to develop content for educational tools.

Conditions

• Spina Bifida

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Intervention group	More frequent follow up with face to face interaction.
BEHAVIORAL	Standard of care group	Transition goal setting during annual follow up.

Timeline

• Start date: 2018-06-01
• Primary completion: 2020-09-01
• Completion: 2021-09-01
• First posted: 2018-03-15
• Last updated: 2021-10-20

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States