Remote Orthopedic Outpatient Consultation by Help of Telemedicine
Trial Snapshot
- Phase
- Not Applicable
- Status
- Completed
- Sponsor
- Enrollment
- 400
- Locations
- 1
- Primary Endpoint
- Safety and quality of health care
Study Overview
Brief Summary
Patients from 4 local communities in northern Norway referred (either new or follow up) to orthopaedic department, University hospital of Northern Norway for outpatient consultation, are randomly assigned to either remote consultation by use of telemedicine (camera and screen), or standard consultation at the hospital. There are x-ray facilities also at the remote site. The patients randomized to telemedicine consultation meet special trained nurses at the remote site, but doctor only by video conference. The patients will be followed for up to one year. The primary endpoint is quality of care achieved with the telemedicine consultation as compared to standard outpatient consultation (assessed by questionnaires filled out by the doctor involved). Secondary end points are patient satisfaction assessed by questionnaires and economic analyses. The study hypothesis is non-inferiority of telemedicine consultation vs. conventional, outpatient consultation.
Study Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Allocation
- Randomized
- Intervention Model
- Parallel
- Primary Purpose
- Health Services Research
- Masking
- None
Eligibility Criteria
- Sex
- All
- Accepts Healthy Volunteers
- No
Inclusion Criteria
- •Informed consent given
- •New referred patients to orthopaedic department (outpatient), UNN, for conditions suitable for telemedicine consultation
- •Follow up consultation of trauma patients (operated/not operated)
- •Follow up consultation after elective orthopaedic surgery (e.g hip prothesis)
- •Follow up of other orthopaedic patients
Exclusion Criteria
- •Senile dementia
- •Soldiers, prisoners
- •Patients not talking Norwegian, dependent on translator
- •If specialized procedures are required during follow up (e.g. cat-scan, ultrasound etc)
- •Patients requiring a specific doctor
Arms & Interventions
Standard consultation
Standard care in orthopaedic outpatient clinic
Intervention: Standard care in orthopaedic outpatient clinic (Other)
Telemedicine consultation
Orthopaedic care in outpatient clinic by use of telemedicine.
Intervention: Telemedicine consultation (Other)
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Safety and quality of health care
Time Frame: 1 year
Secondary Outcomes
- Patient satisfaction(up to 1 year after last consultation)
- Cost value(up to 1 year)