Post Discharge after Surgery Virtual Care with Remote Automated Monitoring Technology (PVC-RAM): protocol for a randomized controlled trial.

CMAJ Open

School of Nursing (McGillion, Levesque, Lounsbury, Bird, Ouellette), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; Population Health Research Institute (McGillion, Whitlock, Devereaux, Belley-Cote, Borges, Vincent, Lamy, Bangdiwala, Le Manach, Harvey, Conen), Hamilton, Ont.; Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (Parlow, Arellano), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.; Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine (Parlow, Shelley, DuMerton, Arellano), Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Kingston, Ont.; Department of Medicine (Belley-Cote, Yousef, Borges, Marcucci, Chaudhry, Haider, Guyatt, Patel, Conen, Tandon), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact (Whitlock, Devereaux, Marcucci, Bangdiwala, Guyatt), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; Departments of Critical Care and Anesthesiology (Jacka), University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta.; Department of Surgery (Adili, Harlock, Simunovic, Nenshi), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton (Adili, LeBlanc, Nenshi, Tandon), Hamilton, Ont.; Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine (Lalu, McCartney, Hamilton), University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ont.; Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (Moloo, Lalu, Halman, Forster, Hamilton), Ottawa, Ont.; Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine (Sehmbi, Nagappa, Yang), Schulich School of Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ont.; Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine (Sehmbi, Nagappa, Yang), London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ont.; Hamilton Health Sciences (Meyer, Paulin, Pettit, Lamy, Lounsbury, Scott, Patel, Ouellette, O'Leary), Hamilton, Ont.; Department of Anesthesia (Shanthanna, Paul, Le Manach, O'Leary), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; Department of Medicine (Roshanov, Mrkobrada), Schulich School of Medicine, University of Western Ontario, London, Ont.; Department of Internal Medicine (Ofori), University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria, West Africa; Department of Medicine (Graham, Taylor), University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta.; Department of Medicine (Halman, Forster), University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ont.; Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing (Peter), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.; Department of Medicine (Marosi), Queen's University, Kingston, Ont.; Alberta Health Services (Deuchar), Alberta, Canada; Department of Surgery (Parry, Schlachta, Schemitsch), University of Western Ontario and London Health Sciences Centre, London, Ont.; Department of Surgery (Williams), University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alta.; Department of Oncology (Meyer), McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont.; Department of Surgery (Pichora), Queen's University and Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Kingston, Ont.; Department of Surgery (Moloo), University of Ottawa and The Ottawa Hospital, Ottawa, Ont.; The Ottawa Hospital (Waggott), Ottawa, Ont.

Published: March 2021

The PVC-RAM trial aims to assess whether virtual care with remote automated monitoring (RAM) improves post-discharge outcomes for patients who have undergone nonelective surgeries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The study involves 900 adults from 8 Canadian hospitals, who are randomly assigned to receive either RAM or standard care, with daily monitoring of vital signs and interaction with nurses over a 30-day period.
Results from this trial will help shape better post-surgical care strategies and will be shared through various platforms for broader impact, both during and after the pandemic.

Background: After nonelective (i.e., semiurgent, urgent and emergent) surgeries, patients discharged from hospitals are at risk of readmissions, emergency department visits or death. During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, we are undertaking the Post Discharge after Surgery Virtual Care with Remote Automated Monitoring Technology (PVC-RAM) trial to determine if virtual care with remote automated monitoring (RAM) compared with standard care will increase the number of days adult patients remain alive at home after being discharged following nonelective surgery.

Methods: We are conducting a randomized controlled trial in which 900 adults who are being discharged after nonelective surgery from 8 Canadian hospitals are randomly assigned to receive virtual care with RAM or standard care. Outcome adjudicators are masked to group allocations. Patients in the experimental group learn how to use the study's tablet computer and RAM technology, which will measure their vital signs. For 30 days, patients take daily biophysical measurements and complete a recovery survey. Patients interact with nurses via the cellular modem-enabled tablet, who escalate care to preassigned and available physicians if RAM measurements exceed predetermined thresholds, patients report symptoms, a medication error is identified or the nurses have concerns they cannot resolve. The primary outcome is number of days alive at home during the 30 days after randomization.

Interpretation: This trial will inform management of patients after discharge following surgery in the COVID-19 pandemic and offer insights for management of patients who undergo nonelective surgery in a nonpandemic setting. Knowledge dissemination will be supported through an online multimedia resource centre, policy briefs, presentations, peer-reviewed journal publications and media engagement.

Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, no. NCT04344665.

Download full-text PDF	Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8034369	PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.9778/cmajo.20200176	DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

virtual care

discharge surgery

care remote

remote automated

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!