CClinicalTrials.gg
CompletedNCT01408758VCRTUpdated Feb 28, 2017

Virtual Clinician Research Tool

An interventional study of Virtual Clinician Research Tool (VCRT) and No VCRT, only physician counseling at visits in Elevated Risk of Cardiovascular Disease and Tobacco Dependence, sponsored by University of Rochester. Completed at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-02-28.

Sponsored by University of Rochester · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
79
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The Virtual Clinician Research Tool (VCRT) will use a virtual format to present our National Cholesterol Education Program (Brown, 2004) and the Tobacco Use and Dependence Treatment Clinical Guideline (Fiore et al., 2008) integrated with principles of human motivation from Self-Determination Theory (SDT) for patients with elevated risk for cardiovascular disease from LDL-cholesterol or tobacco dependence.

Read the detailed description

Hypercholesterolemia and tobacco use interact to increase cardiovascular disease (USDHHS 1990; 2004). Smoking is a cause of metabolic syndrome and diabetes (Eliasson, 2003; Hu et al., 2001; Weitzman et al., 2005). Smokers live on average 13 years less than non-smokers (USDHHS, 2004), and tobacco remains the number one health threat in the United States (Mokdad, Marks, Stroup, \& Gerberding, 2004). The Public Health Service (PHS) has published a Guideline for Tobacco Dependence Treatment (Fiore, 2000; Fiore et al., 2008). Hypercholesterolemia is a major risk for cardiovascular disease, and effective treatment with lifestyle and medications lower the risk of cardiovascular events including sudden death, myocardial infarction, and stroke. The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) has published clinical guidelines for its management (Brown, 2004). These include recommendations for therapeutic lifestyle change and medications.

The specific aims of the proposed work are: first, to determine abstinence from tobacco at 6-months and lower LDL-cholesterol from baseline to 6-months for patients assigned the VCRT in addition to the clinician compared to those just receiving clinician care; second, to test for increase in medication use (number of days of medication use-for tobacco dependence mediations and for statin medications for cholesterol) for those receiving the VCRT + clinician; third, to examine the self-determination process model, expanded to include autonomous motivation and perceived competence for medication adherence and actual adherence to promote maintained abstinence and lower LDL-cholesterol.

02

Conditions studied

  • Elevated Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
  • Tobacco Dependence
03

In context

Cardiovascular Diseases

4,904 studies on the registry are indexed under Cardiovascular Diseases; 920 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 79 is below the median of 100 across 2,738 interventional studies indexed under Cardiovascular Diseases.

Browse Cardiovascular Diseases studies →

Lead sponsor

University of Rochester is the lead sponsor of 715 studies on the registry; 116 are open to participants now.

Of its 56 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 44 (79%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
18 Years and older
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

Inclusion Criteria Tobacco Dependence: Subjects must be currently smoking at least 5 cigarettes per day in the past month, and have smoked 100 cigarettes in their lifetime to qualify for the tobacco VCRT; and will be eligible regardless of their desire to stop smoking.

B. Inclusion Criteria Cholesterol. Subjects must have moderate or moderately high risk for coronary artery disease defined by NCEP (two or more of the following risk factors (male age > 45 years, female >55, HDL-C \<40 mg/dl, active smoking, family history of CHD age \< 55 years male or age \< 65 years female) and the average of two LDL-cholesterols > 100 mg/dl, or the average of two non-HDL cholesterols of 130 mg/dl. Participants will be eligible regardless of desire to lower their cholesterol.

Exclusion criteria

-

Exclusion Criteria:

Exclusion Criteria Tobacco and Cholesterol: Participants will be excluded if they are pregnant or lactating, have a psychotic disorder, are unable to make decisions about medications for themselves, are too sick to participate, or have a life expectancy of less than 12 months (e.g., advanced cancer). Participants will be excluded from the tobacco portion of the trial if they have suicidal ideation (score of 1 or more on the suicidal thought or self harm question in the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ) 9). Participants will be excluded from the cholesterol portion of the trial if they have had a heart attack or a stroke, if they have diabetes mellitus, aortic aneurysm, peripheral vascular disease, or chronic kidney disease. They will also be excluded if they are already taking a statin medication to lower their cholesterol. They will be excluded if they are unable to take any of the statin medications due to allergy or adverse reaction in the past (before the study starts). They will be excluded from both cholesterol and tobacco portions of study if they do not speak or write English. Participants will be excluded if they do not have access to a personal computer at home (Mac or PC) with broadband internet access (such as cable modem or digital subscriber line [DSL] and Firefox, Internet Explorer 7 (or higher), or Safari browser software.

-

05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Participant)
Enrollment
79 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Other
    VCRT

    This group will have 2 visits with a study physician in addition to using the VCRT.

    Other: Virtual Clinician Research Tool (VCRT)

  • Other
    no VCRT

    This group will have 2 visits with study physician only, no VCRT.

    Other: No VCRT, only physician counseling at visits

Interventions

  • OtherVirtual Clinician Research Tool (VCRT)

    The Virtual Clinician Research Tool (VCRT) will use Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to guide the process or style of how two national guidelines (one for hyperlipidemia, 1 for tobacco dependence)will be operationalized into a virtual format that patients can access online using any internet connected personal computer to develop their plan for change (in this project regarding tobacco or nutrition).

  • OtherNo VCRT, only physician counseling at visits

    No intervention

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Tobacco abstinence or lowered LDL cholesterol

    abstinence from tobacco at 6-months and lower LDL-cholesterol from baseline to 6-months for patients assigned the VCRT in addition to the clinician compared to those receiving standard clinician care;

    Time frame: 6 months

Secondary outcomes

  1. increase in medication use

    increase in medication use (number of days of medication use-for tobacco dependence mediations and for statin medications for cholesterol) for those receiving the VCRT + clinician;

    Time frame: 6 months

07

Study locations

1 site
  • University of Rochester Medical Center Healthy Living Center
    Rochester, New York 14607, United States
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Feb 28, 2017, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT01408758
Lead sponsor
University of Rochester
Collaborators
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Responsible party
Geoffrey Williams (Professor, University of Rochester) — Principal investigator
First posted
Aug 3, 2011
Start date
Jan 2011
Primary completion
Jun 2012
Completion
Jun 2012
Last update
Feb 28, 2017

Study contacts

Geoffrey C. Williams, M.D., Ph.D.
principal investigator · University of Rochester

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is completed, as verified in Feb 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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