SEURO -Scaling EUROpean citizen driven transferable and transformative digital health (SEURO): An Effectiveness-Implementation Hybrid Trial

Name of Study

Purpose of Study (300 words)

People with more than one chronic health condition (e.g., diabetes, chronic bronchitis, or hypertension) sometimes find it difficult to keep track of the different symptoms, medications, and tasks that are needed to manage their health and well-being. The aim of this study is to find out if a new technology system called ProACT can help them to do so and can help to improve the support they receive.
The ProACT technology system is designed to help people to measure symptoms and activities related to their health and well-being (e.g., their blood pressure levels, physical activity, and sleep), to view all this information in an app on a tablet device (e.g. an iPad) or a smartphone, to help them to manage aspects of their health and well-being (e.g. to create medication lists and activity goals), and to receive educational material about their health conditions. It also allows people to share their health and well-being information with people in their care networks (e.g. a family member or doctor).

Type of Study (observational/exploratory etc)

Practical Randomised Control Trial (pRCT)

Are you recruiting participants for this trial?

Yes

State geographical location of study (city/county/country) (single or multiple sites)

Ireland (particularly Dublin, Louth, Meath, Cavan, Carlow, Galway city) as well as in Belgium and Sweden

Who can take part?

Aged 65 or over • Have at least two of the following conditions: congestive heart failure, cardiovascular disease (excluding stroke and vascular dementia), diabetes, and/or a chronic respiratory condition (e.g. COPD, chronic bronchitis, chronic asthma, emphysema) • Must have sufficient cognitive capacity to provide informed consent

What will the participants be asked to do? (max 300 words)

We have developed a new digital platform called ProACT that can help people with multiple conditions to keep track of health information (medication, symptoms, goals, and knowledge). During the trial we will investigate the effectiveness of the digital system for self-management in older people with multimorbidity. Participants will be divided into 3 groups.

Group 1: Participants in this group will receive a customized ProACT platform. This includes sensors to measure health and wellbeing data relevant to their conditions (e.g. blood pressure, blood glucose, activity); the ProACT CareApp, an application that allows participants to view their symptom and wellbeing data over time, manage their medication list, set goals and add people to their care network (e.g. informal carers, formal carers, healthcare professionals), each of whom will receive their own CareApp to view the participant’s data. Participants in this group will also receive support from a clinical triage service provided by Caredoc that, through the provision of a customised ProACT platform, will have access to their data and will monitor their vital signs between 9am and 5pm Monday to Friday.

Group 2: Participants in this group will receive a non-customised version of the ProACT platform, including the sensors and CareApp.

Group 3: Participants in this group will continue to receive their existing care.

We will ask participants to take part in the trial for a period of 6 months, while providing us with feedback at several points in time. We aim to recruit 240 people in total, but across several recruitment channels. We are also interested in the views of participants who will be in a care network (e.g., formal carers) as well as those of organisations who agree to be involved in the trial, to better understand how ProACT might be implemented in practice.

Recruitment Start Date

08/15/2022

Recruitment Finish Date

28/02/2023

Study Duration

The study will take place from October 2022 to September 2023. Participants will start on a rolling basis. Participation is for 6 months.

This study is funded by:

The SEURO project is funded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2020 research programme.

For further information contact:

Suzanne Smith, NetwellCASALA at Dundalk Institute of Technology

Phone

042 9370296