CClinicalTrials.gg
Status unknownNCT04540679Updated Sep 7, 2020

Self-Management Across the Care Continuum

An interventional study of VIP4SCI in Spinal Cord Injuries, sponsored by London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute and Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's. Status unknown. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2020-09-07.

Sponsored by London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute and Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's · Not applicable, Interventional, and Other

The sponsor has not verified this record recently (last verified Sep 2020), so the status shown — last known as Not yet recruiting — may be out of date.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
60
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
18 Years and older
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Persons with spinal cord injury (SCI) face many challenges as they transition from inpatient care to outpatients and on into the community. With shorter lengths of stay and barriers to coordinating care between SCI specialists and community service providers, the development of self-management skills are an integral part in the effective community reintegration, proper healthcare utilization, management of secondary complications as well as independence and community participation. Based on the best available behaviour change theory, this initiative utilizes an online e-health Platform as a key component of a novel care service delivery model to enhance the development of effective self-management skills. This Platform will be provided to participants receiving care in the inpatient or outpatient programs at Parkwood Institute with the potential to continue its use in the community. Participants will complete surveys prior to, during and following use of the e-health solution. These will assess feasibility, usability, usage analytics and several patient-reported outcomes including self-management-related outcomes, healthcare utilization and prevalence of secondary complications. This platform is especially relevant to our current state of dealing with COVID-19 and the challenges it presents for clinicians and their patients in that it will provide an online solution during a time of physical isolation as well as providing access to tools and resources as people transition back to their home communities following specialized rehabilitation services.

Read the detailed description

Participants using the e-health solution (called Parkwood VIP4SCI) will have access to features that connect them directly with their clinician(s) such as Virtual calling (initiated by the clinician), Messaging (email) and Scheduling/Calendar features. Platform use will be supported by a "VIP Coach. The clinician, coach and patient participants will also be able to use the e-health solution to create and monitor progress associated with self-management goals and also use embedded educational resources. These resources will also support the patients in best meeting their goals in a timely manner.

User Manuals for both the Client (i.e. Patient) and Provider (i.e. Clinician) are provided and contain screenshots and descriptive text that outline all the features of the intervention.

Patient participants will either be inpatients or outpatients, whereas healthcare team participants will consist of any provider assigned to the patient participant's circle of care at Parkwood Institute. The patient participants can choose to have their caregiver also access the platform - however, due to technical limitations, only 1 account is provided for the patient/caregiver dyad. Health care provider participants will have access to the platform for a specific patient at any time that patient is in the "Platform access" group as described below. The inpatient participants will be randomly allocated to 1 of 2 groups - either 1) "Platform access" or 2) "Standard care" with delayed access to the platform. In the "Standard care" group, the platform will be provided 6 weeks after inpatient discharge with support provided by the VIP coach. Those in the "Platform access" group will receive access within 2 weeks of admission to the inpatient or outpatient team at Parkwood Institute. For those patients transitioning from inpatient to outpatient care, their access to the platform will be guided by which group they were originally assigned to in addition to their needs and discharge circumstances as some of these patients may or may not be picked up by the Parkwood Outpatient team. The criteria influencing this will continue to be guided by the clinical team as per standard care. Participants seen by the outpatient team that were previously enrolled as inpatients in the "Standard care" group will be able to access the platform after 6 weeks of outpatient therapy with VIP coach support only, while those in the "Platform access" group can continue to use the platform with their outpatient health care providers.

Patient participants will complete surveys at specific time points throughout the study including measures at baseline (within 2 weeks of admission), discharge from inpatient program (or 6 weeks from admission for outpatients) and then 6 weeks after that. In the case of the "Standard care" group, there will be an additional follow-up survey to assess outcome measures 6 weeks after they have been provided access to the platform. The outcome measures will assess feasibility, usability, usage analytics and several patient-reported outcomes including self-management-related outcomes, healthcare utilization and prevalence of secondary complications.

02

Conditions studied

  • Spinal Cord Injuries

Keywords

  • online platform
  • self-management
  • e-health
  • care transitions
03

In context

Spinal Cord Injuries

1,948 studies on the registry are indexed under Spinal Cord Injuries; 505 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 60 is above the median of 24 across 1,566 interventional studies indexed under Spinal Cord Injuries.

Browse Spinal Cord Injuries studies →

Lead sponsor

London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute and Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's is the lead sponsor of 352 studies on the registry; 2 are open to participants now.

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
Yes

Eligibility criteria

Inclusion Criteria - For patient participants:

  • >18 years old
  • Has a spinal cord injury
  • Admitted to SCI inpatients/outpatients at Parkwood Institute for comprehensive Rehabilitation Care (not short stay)
  • Has reliable high-speed internet access and device
  • Intact cognitive function

Inclusion Criteria - For caregiver participants:

  • Have been identified by the patient participant as someone who they would like to participate in a caregiver role

Inclusion Criteria - For health care provider participants:

  • Part of the health care team for a patient participant

Exclusion Criteria - For patient participants only:

  • \<18 years old
  • No spinal cord injury
  • No access to reliable internet access or device
  • Impaired cognitive function
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Other
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
None (open label)
Enrollment
60 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Active comparator
    Inpatient - Standard Care Delayed Platform

    Patient will receive standard inpatient care and provided access to the platform 6 weeks after inpatient discharge with support provided by the VIP coach.

    Other: VIP4SCI

  • Active comparator
    Inpatient - Platform Access

    Patient will be provided access to the platform within 2 weeks of admission to the inpatient program

    Other: VIP4SCI

  • Active comparator
    Outpatient - Platform Access

    Patient will be provided access to the platform within 2 weeks of admission to the outpatient program. If patient is transitioning from the inpatient program, their access to the platform will be guided by which group they were originally assigned to (i.e. if a 6 week delay is applicable).

    Other: VIP4SCI

Interventions

  • OtherVIP4SCI

    Technology-enabled self-management \& rehabilitation solution

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. Feasibility of the use of the platform across 4 sub-domains including a) acceptance, b) demand, c) practicality, and d) limited efficacy

    Feasibility will be assessed across 4 subdomains (a) acceptance, b) demand, c) practicality, and d) limited efficacy) by the average scores from a set of 5 point likert-style questions relating to each sub-domain as part of a customized feasibility survey based on the Bowen et al feasibility framework (Am J Prev Med. 2009 May; 36(5): 452-457). The overall feasibility will be represented by the average score across all of the sub-domains.

    Time frame: 6 weeks after admission/enrollment (inpatient/outpatient platform access groups), discharge (or 6 weeks after admission if outpatient), and 6 weeks after being provided access to the platform (if Standard Care group)

Secondary outcomes

  1. Social Roles & Activities - Ability to Participate

    This will be assessed using 4 questions from the Social Roles \& Activities - Ability to Participate Short Form 10a which is a subscale in the SCI Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) 1.0 Measurement Tool (Tulsky et al., J Spinal Cord Med. May, 2015; 38(3): 257-269). This is a patient-reported outcome measure involving 5-point, likert-based questions.

    Time frame: Longitudinal measure assessed at baseline and then at discharge (or 6 weeks) and then again 6 weeks later for follow-up

  2. Independence

    This will be assessed using 1 question from the Independence Short Form 8a which is a subscale in the SCI Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) 1.0 Measurement Tool (Tulsky et al., J Spinal Cord Med. May, 2015; 38(3): 257-269). This is a patient-reported outcome measure involving 5-point, likert-based questions.

    Time frame: Longitudinal measure assessed at baseline and then at discharge (or 6 weeks) and then again 6 weeks later for follow-up

  3. Pressure Ulcer

    This will be assessed using 3 questions from the Pressure Ulcers Form 12a which is a subscale in the SCI Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) 1.0 Measurement Tool (Tulsky et al., J Spinal Cord Med. May, 2015; 38(3): 257-269). This is a patient-reported outcome measure involving 5-point, likert-based questions.

    Time frame: Longitudinal measure assessed at baseline and then at discharge (or 6 weeks) and then again 6 weeks later for follow-up

  4. Pain Interference

    This will be assessed using 3 questions from the Pain Interference Form 10a which is a subscale in the SCI Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) 1.0 Measurement Tool (Tulsky et al., J Spinal Cord Med. May, 2015; 38(3): 257-269). This is a patient-reported outcome measure involving 5-point, likert-based questions.

    Time frame: Longitudinal measure assessed at baseline and then at discharge (or 6 weeks) and then again 6 weeks later for follow-up

  5. Pain Behaviour

    This will be assessed using 1 question from the Pain Behaviour Form which is a subscale in the SCI Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) 1.0 Measurement Tool (Tulsky et al., J Spinal Cord Med. May, 2015; 38(3): 257-269). This is a patient-reported outcome measure involving 5-point, likert-based questions.

    Time frame: Longitudinal measure assessed at baseline and then at discharge (or 6 weeks) and then again 6 weeks later for follow-up

  6. Resilience

    This will be assessed using 3 questions from the Resilience Short Form 8a which is a subscale in the SCI Quality of Life (SCI-QOL) 1.0 Measurement Tool (Tulsky et al., J Spinal Cord Med. May, 2015; 38(3): 257-269). This is a patient-reported outcome measure involving 5-point, likert-based questions.

    Time frame: Longitudinal measure assessed at baseline and then at discharge (or 6 weeks) and then again 6 weeks later for follow-up

  7. Impact of Secondary Conditions

    This will be assessed using the Secondary Conditions Scale which involves 4-point, likert-based questions to indicate the degree to which a specific condition is a "problem" (Kalpakjian et al., J Spinal Cord Med. 2007; 30: 62-70). There are 16 questions, each one addressing a different condition (e.g., bowel dysfunction, bladder dysfunction, diabetes, etc) that are common in persons with spinal cord injury.

    Time frame: Longitudinal measure assessed at baseline and then at discharge (or 6 weeks) and then again 6 weeks later for follow-up

  8. Quality of Mobile Application

    This will be assessed using the Mobile Application Rating Scale which is a series of 5-point likert-based questions across 6 sub-domains including (a) engagement, (b) functionality, (c) aesthetics, (d) information quality, (e) subjective quality and (f) perceived impact (Stoyanov et al., JMIR Mhealth Uhealth 2015;3(1):e27).

    Time frame: 6 weeks after admission/enrollment (inpatient/outpatient platform access groups), discharge (or 6 weeks after admission if outpatient), and 6 weeks after being provided access to the platform (if Standard Care group)

07

Study locations

No study locations are listed for this record.

08

References and documents

Individual participant data

Plan to share: No

No publications or documents are linked to this record.

09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Sep 7, 2020, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT04540679
Lead sponsor
London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute and Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's
Collaborators
ForaHealthyMe Inc, University Health Network, Toronto, Spinal Cord Injury Ontario, The Craig H. Neilsen Foundation
Responsible party
Dalton Wolfe (Scientist, London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute and Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's) — Principal investigator
First posted
Sep 7, 2020
Start date
Sep 1, 2020 (estimated)
Primary completion
Apr 29, 2021 (estimated)
Completion
Apr 29, 2021 (estimated)
Last update
Sep 7, 2020

Study contacts

Dalton Wolfe, PhD
Contact
dwolfe@uwo.ca
519-685-4292 ext. 42957
Heather Askes, BSc
Contact
heather.askes@sjhc.london.on.ca
519-685-4292 ext. 42940
Dalton Wolfe, PhD
principal investigator · London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute and Lawson Research Institute of St. Joseph's

Oversight

FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is status unknown, as verified in Sep 2020. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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