1. Pragmatic randomized trial of a pre-visit intervention to improve the quality of telemedicine visits for vulnerable patients living with HIV
- Author
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Monica Gandhi, Kevin Zhang, Douglas L. Black, Matthew D. Hickey, Cyril Sola, Francesco Sergi, Jon Oskarsson, Matthew A Spinelli, Diane V. Havlir, Janet Q Nguyen, and Vanessa Blaz
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,Telemedicine ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Clinical Trials and Supportive Activities ,Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) ,digital health ,Biomedical Engineering ,Health Informatics ,HIV Infections ,Primary care ,medicine.disease_cause ,Article ,law.invention ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,Randomized controlled trial ,law ,Clinical Research ,Intervention (counseling) ,Pandemic ,medicine ,Humans ,Quality (business) ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Pandemics ,media_common ,030505 public health ,business.industry ,COVID-19 ,HIV ,Health Services ,Telephone ,Infectious Diseases ,Good Health and Well Being ,Family medicine ,Public Health and Health Services ,HIV/AIDS ,0305 other medical science ,business ,Infection ,randomised controlled trial ,Medical Informatics ,Information Systems - Abstract
Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has required a shift of many routine primary care visits to telemedicine, potentially widening disparities in care access among vulnerable populations. In a publicly-funded HIV clinic, we aimed to evaluate a pre-visit phone-based planning intervention to address anticipated barriers to telemedicine. Methods We conducted a pragmatic randomized controlled trial of patients scheduled for a phone-based HIV primary care visit at the Ward 86 HIV clinic in San Francisco from 15 April to 15 May 2020. Once reached by phone, patients were randomized to either have a structured pre-visit planning intervention to address barriers to an upcoming telemedicine visit versus a standard reminder call. The primary outcome was telemedicine visit attendance. Results Of 476 scheduled telemedicine visits, 280 patients were reached by a pre-visit call to offer enrollment. Patients were less likely to be reached if virally unsuppressed (odds ratio (OR) 0.11, 95% confidence intervals (CI) 0.03–0.48), CD4 Conclusions A structured phone-based planning call to address barriers to telemedicine in a public HIV clinic was less likely to reach patients with poorly-controlled HIV and patients experiencing homelessness, suggesting additional interventions may be needed in this population to ensure access to telemedicine-based care. Among patients reachable by phone, telemedicine visit attendance was high and not improved with a structured pre-visit intervention, suggesting that standard reminders may be adequate in this population.
- Published
- 2020