Telephone informed consent in a pragmatic point-of-care clinical trial embedded in primary care.

Background: One benefit of pragmatic clinical trials is reduction of the burden on patients and clinical staff while facilitating a learning healthcare system. One way to decrease the work of clinical staff is through decentralized telephone consent.

Methods: The Diuretic Comparison Project (DCP) was a nationwide Point of Care pragmatic clinical trial conducted by the VA Cooperative Studies Program. The purpose of the trial was to compare the clinical effectiveness on major CV outcomes of two commonly used diuretics, hydrochlorothiazide and chlorthalidone, in an elderly patient population. Telephone consent was allowed for this study because of its minimal risk designation. Telephone consent was more difficult than initially anticipated and the study team constantly adjusted methods to find timely solutions.

Results: The major challenges can be categorized as call center-related, telecommunications, operational, and study population based. In particular, the possible technical and operational pitfalls are rarely discussed. By presenting hurdles here, future studies may avoid these challenges and start studies with a more effective system in place.

Conclusions: DCP is a novel study designed to answer an important clinical question. The lessons learned from implementing a centralized call center for the Diuretic Comparison Project helped the study reach enrollment goals and develop a centralized telephone consent system that can be utilized for future pragmatic and explanatory clinical trials.

Clinical Trial Registration: The study is registered on ClinicalTrials.gov; NCT02185417 [https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02185417]. The contents do not represent the views of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or the United States Government.