Teledermatology Solution Through Mobile Phone in Rural Mongolia

Social Distance Clinical Trial

Official title:

Teledermatology Solution Through Mobile Phone in Rural Mongolia

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT02193854
• Other study ID #: TaipeiMU
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: June 9, 2014
• Last updated: July 16, 2014
• Start date: September 2013
• Est. completion date: January 2014

Study information

• Verified date: July 2014
• Source: Taipei Medical University
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Health authority: Mongolia: Ethics Committee
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Objective This study is aimed to estimate the distance, time and the cost of travel saved by patients who are seeking tele-dermatology (TD) service though smart mobile phones in the resource poor settings at the rural clinics of Mongolia.

Methods A cluster-randomised trial was conducted for six months at the 20 rural health clinics selected from three districts in Mongolia. With a computer-generated sequence, health clinics were randomly allocated either to the intervention group, in which all general practitioners (GPs) received TD consultation through Sana system, or the control group, in which GPs referred patients to the dermatologist at district hospital whenever needed. The primary outcome was to estimate the distance traveled, times spend and the cost of travel required in receiving dermal care for patients in rural Mongolia. Analysis was done to estimate the difference between the aforementioned parameters among intervention and control groups.

Description:

The investigators used Sana system, that is a mobile phone-based, open source software platform for telemedicine services. The Android-based system supports multimedia, location-based data, and text. In the village health clinic, a healthcare worker will interact with a patient and collects data through a step-by-step clinical questionnaire on a smart mobile phone. As patients' data is uploaded to an open source electronic medical record system (OpenMRS) with a diagnosis-specific information and images. The consultant can access the clinical information about the patient and make appropriate diagnoses and treatment recommendations from the secondary hospital.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 441
• Est. completion date: January 2014
• Est. primary completion date: January 2014
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: Both
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Patients aged 18-98 years visiting with dermal problem.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Patients who do not need dermal care.

• Patients who are already under treatment for dermal problem.

Study Design

Endpoint Classification: Safety/Efficacy Study, Intervention Model: Single Group Assignment, Masking: Open Label, Primary Purpose: Health Services Research

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Social Distance

Intervention

Device:
• Mobile Phone
Investigators used Sana system, that is a mobile phone-based, open source software platform for telemedicine services. The Android-based system supports multimedia, location-based data, and text. In the village health clinic, a healthcare worker will interact with a patient and collects data through a step-by-step clinical questionnaire on a smart mobile phone. As patients' data is uploaded to an open source electronic medical record system (OpenMRS) with a diagnosis-specific information and images. The consultant can access the clinical information about the patient and make appropriate diagnoses and treatment recommendations from the secondary hospital.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Taiwan	Shabbir Syed Abdul	Taipei

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Taipei Medical University	Health Science University of Mongolia

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Taiwan, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Comparison between the number of referrals in the control and intervention groups	Outcome measures are the number of referrals done in the control and in the intervention groups. We compared the difference in the number of referrals with Sana system and without.	up to 5 months	Yes
Secondary	Satisfaction by physicians and patients by questionnaire	Both physicians and patients who were in the intervention group were satisfied by the Sana system.	up to 5 months	No

External Links

•   International Center for Health Information Technologies