Snow Disease Surveillance System Study

NCT01232686 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: ID 3746/ HST954-10
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 200
• Locations: 0 countries
• Sites: N/A

Brief Summary

The study investigates whether shared online access to epidemiological data for general practitioners, disease prevention officers, emergency care services and microbiology laboratories changes clinical practice with regard to testing, diagnosing and treatment of communicable diseases. The main hypothesis is that "online access for general practitioner to epidemiological data about communicable diseases changes clinical practice for testing, diagnosing and treatment of communicable diseases".

Conditions

Communicable Diseases

Keywords

Communicable Diseases; Epidemiology; Population surveillance; Computerized Medical Record; Data collection

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Earlier diagnosis and treatment for communicable diseases

  General practitioners (GP) have three possible decisions in a consultation with a patient; 1) treat on suspicion, 2) take a sample, 3) wait and see whether the patient recovers or get worse, or 4) a combination of 1 and 2. In situations with decision 3 (wait and see) the patient may return to a consultation later on. The hypothesis is that online access to epidemiological data from the local patient population will enable GPs to make the right decision more often based on knowledge about the epidemiological situation in the patient population.

  Measured at the end of the data collection period, approx. 1.5 year. (December 2012)

Secondary Outcomes (3)

• Earlier detection of local disease outbreaks

  Measured at the end of the data collection period, approx. 1.5 year. (December 2012)

• Lower number of infected during disease outbreaks

  Measured at the end of the data collection period, approx. 1.5 year. (December 2012)

• Impact on health service costs

  Measured at the end of the data collection period, approx. 1.5 year. (December 2012)

Study Arms (2)

Control area

NO INTERVENTION

In the control areas we will monitor the prevalence and treatment of communicable diseases without giving the participants online access to disease surveillance information

Intervention area

EXPERIMENTAL

In these areas we will give study participants online access to epidemiological data for communicable diseases

Other: Online disease surveillance data access

Interventions

Online disease surveillance data access OTHER

In the intervention areas we will give the study participants online access to the Snow disease surveillance system. The system will provide data about the incidents of respiratory and gastrointestinal communicable diseases in the patient population.

Intervention area

Eligibility Criteria

• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)

You may qualify if:

• Volunteering General Practitioner (GP) working in a GP office

You may not qualify if:

• The GP does not use a Electronic Patient Record (EPR) system

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University Hospital of North Norway: lead
• University of Tromso: collaborator
• The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Health: collaborator
• Norwegian Health Network (state owned enterprise): collaborator

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Communicable Diseases

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Infections; Disease Attributes; Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Johan Gustav Bellika, PhD

  University of Tromsø, Department of Computer Science

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: NON RANDOMIZED
• Masking: NONE
• Purpose: HEALTH SERVICES RESEARCH
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: October 15, 2010
• First Posted: November 2, 2010
• Study Start: October 1, 2010
• Primary Completion: December 1, 2012
• Study Completion: December 1, 2012
• Last Updated: February 16, 2017

Record last verified: 2015-12