An interventional study of Enhanced communications & ultrasound in Emergency Medical Services and Emergency Service, Hospital, sponsored by University of Aberdeen. Completed at 3 sites in United Kingdom. Open to participants aged 16 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2021-02-21.
Sponsored by University of Aberdeen · Not applicable, Interventional, and Health services research
SatCare is a randomised controlled trial involving rapid standardised ultrasound assessment of patients with shock, major trauma, abdominal pain, chest pain or breathlessness in emergency ambulances. The scans will take less than 5 minutes and be transmitted to a hospital-based expert for review, providing support and instructions for optimal prehospital care.
Five Highland Scottish Ambulance Service ambulances covering areas more than 30 minutes from Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, UK, will be equipped with an ultrasound machine (M-Turbo, FujiFilm Sonosite) and satellite transmission system plus webcam, and will be deployed in real emergency situations. When dispatched to a potentially eligible patient, the attending paramedic will contact Raigmore Hospital's emergency department to check the availability of an emergency medicine specialist and obtain study group allocation (ultrasound with enhanced telecommunications plus usual care versus usual care alone). Following verbal consent from the patient, trained paramedics will perform the condition-specific scan protocol in the ambulance at the incident site, and transmit the recordings and patient video via satellite to the emergency department for specialist analysis. The consultant will give advice on patient management via standard ambulance communications systems while it is en route to the hospital.
The remotely supported prehospital ultrasound implementation will be examined in terms of its delivery and functioning. An economic evaluation will compare its use with care as usual for eligible patients transported by ambulance, modelling the costs and benefits of this service expansion and determining optimum use. It is hoped that the results, anticipated to be available in 2019, will provide an evidence base for the use of prehospital ultrasound for emergency care.
Research objectives:
Research questions:
Patient Randomisation:
Patients will be randomized to the intervention or control group prior to obtaining consent (Zelen randomisation), an approach considered optimal in trials where care is time-critical and patients may be highly stressed. This simplifies and shortens the in-ambulance consent process because the details of the random allocation and its associated uncertainty don't need to be explained until later.
Randomisation is performed using randomisation envelopes with codes printed on them, located in the ambulances. Codes will be reported and recorded on the emergency department contact log when a potential patient call-out occurs. If on arrival at the emergency scene the patient meets the inclusion criteria, the paramedic will obtain the patient's study group allocation by opening the envelope.
Consent:
It is crucial that delays to patient transfer are reduced to an absolute minimum in the ultrasound scanning group. The process of scanning is rapid and offers virtually no risk to the patient, but delays due to requesting consent are potentially more problematic and need to be minimised as much as possible. It is therefore proposed to have a two-stage consent process: a brief verbal consent to scanning and data transmission in the ambulance, and on arrival at the hospital, full written consent to health record analysis and to complete a follow-up questionnaire three months later.
If patients are assessed by the paramedic to lack the mental capacity and understanding to provide meaningful consent, an eligible proxy (relative, welfare attorney or guardian) accompanying the patient may provide consent on his or her behalf in line with the Adults with Incapacity Act, Scotland (2000). If a participant who is unable to consent shows any signs of unwillingness to take part or distress, they will be immediately withdrawn from the study.
Patient follow-up:
Patients will be asked to complete a standard EQ-5D-5L (health-related quality of life) questionnaire 3 months after recruitment to the trial, plus a short satisfaction/service use questionnaire. Ten patients from both the scanned and control groups will be approached at this time to ask if they would be willing to be interviewed about the use of ambulance-based ultrasound. If other specific interesting themes meriting further investigation arise from the interviews, these may be explored further with additional interviews in other participants. Patient involvement in the trial will end on completion of this 3-month follow-up.
Analyses:
The primary outcome is defined as the patient EQ-5D-5L (EuroQol five dimension questionnaire) score three months after the original ambulance episode. Analysis will be on an intention to treat basis with a per protocol analysis as a sensitivity. Pre-specified descriptive subgroup analyses will examine EQ-5D-5L results by age group, reason for scan and transport distance.
The economic analysis will include both a within-trial economic evaluation and a model-based economic evaluation. The within-trial analyses will take the form of a cost-utility analysis from the perspective of the National Health Service. The model-based analysis will also take the perspective of the NHS, but try to take into account wider societal costs such as unpaid carer time and costs, using standard national figures to estimate these contributions. A Markov model will be used to extrapolate from the short-term trial outcomes into the longer term.
University of Aberdeen is the lead sponsor of 176 studies on the registry; 24 are open to participants now.
Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.
Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Patients with:
Exclusion Criteria:
Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Informed consent
Before you join, the study team explains what taking part involves — its purpose, what happens, the risks and possible benefits — and answers your questions, so you can decide freely. Consent is usually recorded on a form (the informed consent form, ICF) signed by you or, where the law allows, by someone legally authorised to decide for you.
You can keep asking questions during the study, you are told of new information that matters, and you can choose to leave at any time.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Patient receives care as usual.
The paramedic will record a brief video summary of the patient's condition, then remotely supported point of care ultrasound scans will be performed, and both file types sent to the hospital for review and feedback from the consultant.
Diagnostic Test: Enhanced communications & ultrasound
Paramedics will perform standardised point-of-care ultrasound scan protocols (specific to the patient's symptom set) and record a short (\<1 minute) video summarising the patient's condition and current management. These will be transmitted via satellite to consultants at the receiving hospital before the ambulance leaves the incident scene. The emergency department consultants will provide support and advice on continuing patient management via standard ambulance communications systems while it is en route to the hospital.
EQ-5D-5L (EuroQol five dimension, five level) score three months after the initial ambulance episode
The EQ-5D-5L questionnaire includes assessments of mobility, self-care, daily activities undertaken, pain, discomfort, anxiety and depression.Completion of the EQ-5D-5L leads to the establishment of 243 distinct states, each with corresponding numerical quality of life value.
Time frame: 3 months post recruitment
Cost per QALY (Quality Adjusted Life Year)
Estimates of cost per QALY are generated using costs and EQ-5D-5L score. The QALY is a measure of disease burden, encompassing both the quality and quantity of life lived. Quality of life is rated between 0 ('worst possible health') and 1 ('best possible health'). The QALY is calculated from the amount of time spent in a particular health state weighted by the utility (quality) score given to that health state. The QALY gained by a specific treatment is compared with an existing standard or no intervention. The relative costs of the two interventions are then compared and the cost of the new treatment in excess of the standard is calculated. This figure is then divided by the QALY of the new intervention to give the cost per QALY (£ per QALY). Lower costs per QALY are preferred by healthcare systems, as they are thought to provide better value for money.
Time frame: 3 months post recruitment
Time from ambulance arrival at scene to definitive treatment or discharge
Measured in hours and minutes
Time frame: up to 3 months post recruitment
Mortality rate
Time frame: up to 3 months post recruitment
Process evaluation (to investigate intervention use, acceptance and optimisation)
Includes interviews with stakeholders and anonymised descriptions of cases in which management was altered as a result of the intervention
Time frame: 15 months
Costs to the NHS
Covering staff and equipment costs, treatment costs, etc. Costs will be measured in UK Pounds Sterling and compiled into a Total Costs figure to compare costs with/without the intervention.
Time frame: 15 months
Relative efficiency calculations (cost-consequences analysis)
A cost-consequences analysis is an economic evaluation where disaggregated costs and a range of outcomes are presented to allow readers to form their own opinion on relevance and relative importance. A descriptive table presents the primary and secondary outcome results together with the estimates of the mean costs associated with each intervention.
Time frame: 15 months
Patient and staff satisfaction with the intervention
Collected using custom created questionnaires
Time frame: 15 months
Patient and staff satisfaction with the intervention
Collected using custom created interview schedules
Time frame: 15 months
Communications system connection speed
The communications system connection speed - the time to locate the satellite, connect to it, and connect to the end server - will be recorded (minutes and seconds). Any failure to connect will be noted.
Time frame: 15 months
Communications system data upload rate
Data upload speeds will be recorded (kb/s).
Time frame: 15 months
Plan to share: No
Ran from Dec 2017 to primary completion in Apr 2018, 4 months.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
This study is completed, as verified in Feb 2021. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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