Community and Health Research Unit

The latest study from researchers at CaHRU was published this month (July 2017) in BMC Medical Infromatics and Decision Making. Entitled ‘Perceptions on use of home telemonitoring in patients with long term conditions – concordance with the Health Information Technology Acceptance Model: a qualitative collective case study‘, and co-authored by Dr Jo Middlemass (visiting fellow), Jolien Vos (doctoral student) and Prof Niro Siriwardena (director), the study formed part of the process evaluation of a large multicentre, multinational trial funded through the European Framework 7 programme, Clinical tRials fOr elderly patients with MultiplE Disease (CHROMED: clinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01960907).

This was a qualitative interview study of patients aged between 60 years and over together with their partners or relatives where applicable on implementation of a telemonitoring system in their homes for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) combined with heart disease. Patients and their relatives were largely positive about telemonitoring but they expressed concerns regarding health professional access and attachment; heightened illness anxiety and desire to avoid continuation of the ‘sick-role’; the need for good organisational processes and informal support. Ease of use was connected to equipment design being suitable for older people. Participants felt it was important to establish trends in health status, to enable detection of early signs of infection and increase the potential for patients to self-manage.

The main trial results have been previously presented at the European Respiratory Society conference and these are currently being prepared for publication. The overall conclusion of this sub-study was that to increase home telemonitoring acceptance among older people, consideration of equipment design and organisational factors was important.

By Niro Siriwardena

Research participants along with their spouse or carer, and health professionals who took part in the CHROMED trial were invited to a feedback session on Wednesday 23^rd March at the Petwood Hotel in Woodhall Spa to mark the end of the study and to hear about initial results from the trial.

CHROMED (Clinical Trials for Elderly Patients with Multiple Diseases) is a European Commission (Framework 7) funded randomised control trial (RCT) which was conducted over three years in seven European countries. The study looked at the impact of telemonitoring equipment in the homes of older people (aged 60 years or over) with a chronic condition commonly known as COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) and an associated heart condition. The University of Lincoln and Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust (LCHS) collaborated closely on this study with partners in Liverpool, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and Slovenia.

Dr Jo Middlemass, study research nurse, gave a presentation detailing the early results. In the feasibility (testing) phase a new breathing device (Resmon Pro) was shown to have identified a chest infection five days before it was treated. It was too early to present the results from the main study but Jo described the findings from interviews carried out with those participants who had the equipment in their homes. David Madeley (technician from Electronic Assistive Technology Service at LCHS) set up the equipment at the event to give everyone who wished to do so, and particularly those who were in the observation arm, an opportunity to try the equipment.