Randomised evaluation of myVirtualClinic
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Virtual clinics versus standard face-to-face appointments for liver transplant patients in routine hospital care: a pragmatic randomised evaluation of myVirtualClinic
IRAS ID
224317
Contact name
Elaine OConnell Francischetto
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Birmingham
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 5 months, 30 days
Research summary
Technology has the potential to facilitate more efficient and patient-centred care, and new technologies are emerging in practice. Virtual clinics, where patients can have a hospital appointment with their clinician from home are emerging in practice, but their effectiveness is unclear. Liver transplant patients often travel long distances for outpatient hospital appointments, so virtual clinics have the potential to benefit them. This study evaluates whether a virtual clinic implemented at University Hospitals Birmingham (UHB) improves patient satisfaction compared to standard face-to-face appointments for liver transplant.
The study is a parallel, two-arm, single-centre, statistician-blinded, randomised evaluation. 180 patients considered clinically stable after a liver transplant will be recruited and randomly assigned to either virtual clinic appointments or standard face-to-face outpatient appointments. The virtual clinic group will have their outpatient appointments from home via a secure video link accessed through the UHB patient platform. Intervention patients can also: submit three topics they want to discuss during the consultation, view waiting times and access a recording of their consultation. Baseline questionnaires will be completed by patients before randomisation and electronic questionnaires will be completed by all trial participants after each appointment over 12 months. To understand experiences of the virtual clinic, interviews will be undertaken with some patients, their carers/family members and health professionals. The primary outcome is the difference between the virtual clinic and standard care groups in three key areas of satisfaction. Secondary outcomes include quality of life, costs, clinical contacts, user experience and electronic questionnaire completion.
Once the study is complete, it is anticipated that it will (1) test the effectiveness of virtual clinics in terms of patient satisfaction (2) evaluate the costs associated with virtual clinics (3) explore experiences of the virtual clinics from key stakeholders, and (4) assess whether a patient platform can be used to collect study data.REC name
West Midlands - Solihull Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
17/WM/0338
Date of REC Opinion
24 Oct 2017
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion