Improving End-of-life Care by Continuing Medical Education and Electronic Decision Making Support for General Practitioners

Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease Clinical Trial

Official title:

Improving End-of-life Care by Continuing Medical Education and Electronic Decision Making Support for General Practitioners in Denmark - an Intervention Study

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Withdrawn

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02050256
• Other study ID #: 2006802748
• Status: Withdrawn
• Phase: N/A
• First received: December 18, 2013
• Last updated: December 10, 2014
• Start date: February 2014
• Est. completion date: December 2014

Study information

• Verified date: December 2013
• Source: University of Aarhus
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Denmark: Danish Dataprotection Agency
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Background: Optimizing the basic palliative care has been shown beneficial to patients in end-of-life care, the general practitioner (GP) having a pivotal role in the health care system, providing comprehensive and continued medical care.

The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of a complex intervention in general practice on GPs' awareness of and confidence in providing end-of-life care.

Method: A follow-up study among 404 general practices in Central Denmark Region. The participating general practices will get the opportunity to receive education in palliative care and access to an electronic support, which provides advice on palliative care and an overview of the palliative population in each medical practice. The education and the support will focus on patients suffering from either metastatic cancer or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (GOLD stage 4).

The end-of-life care delivered by the GPs to their deceased patients will be analysed, based on questionnaires to GPs and register data related to the deceased patients before and after the intervention, .

Primary outcomes: Place of death of deceased patients, time spent at home, and number of hospital admissions in the last three months of the patients' lives.

Secondary outcomes: Number and kinds of contacts between GPs and patients, use of relevant medicine and of the 'Safety Box'. Finally GPs' confidence concerning palliative care will be assessed in questionnaires.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Withdrawn
• Enrollment: 0
• Est. completion date: December 2014
• Est. primary completion date: December 2014
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: N/A and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

Working as General Practitioner in the Central Region of Denmark in 2013 and onwards

Exclusion Criteria:

Study Design

Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Supportive Care

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Lung Diseases, Obstructive
• Metastatic Cancer
• Neoplasm Metastasis
• Pulmonary Disease, Chronic Obstructive

Intervention

Other:
• continuing medical education and electronic decision support

• education and electronic support
Continuing medical education and electronic decision support to General Practitioners.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Denmark	Aarhus University	Aarhus

Sponsors (3)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
University of Aarhus	Danish Cancer Society, TrygFonden, Denmark

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Denmark, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Place of death of deceased patients	Looking at the proportion of General practitioners patients dying at home in the year following the continuing medical education meeting	1 year	No
Primary	time spent at home the last three months of the deceased patients lives	Looking at all the deceased patients in one year following the continuing medical education meeting	3 months	No
Primary	Numbers of hospital admission the last three months of the deceased patients lives	Looking at all the deceased patients in one year following the continuing medical education meeting	3 months	No
Secondary	and kinds of contacts between GPs and patients in the last three months of the deceased patients lives		three months	No
Secondary	use of relevant medicine and of the 'Safety Box' in the last three months of the deceased patients lives		three months	No
Secondary	GPs' confidence concerning palliative care	assessed using questionnaire before and after the intervention	14 months	No