Impact of the implementation of an online network support tool among clinicians of Primary Health Care and Specialists: ECOPIH Project

BMC Family Practice

Study Protocol

Josep Anton De la Fuente¹  Xavier Alzaga Reig¹  Souhel Flayeh Beneyto²  David Lacasta Tintorer³  Pere Torán Monserrat⁴  Josep Maria Manresa⁵  Xavier Mundet Tuduri⁶  Francesc Saigí Rubió⁷ 

[1] Centre d’Atenció Primària Dr Robert. Institut Català de la Salut, Plaça de la Medicina s/n, 08911, Badalona, Spain;Centre d’Atenció Primària la Salut, Institut Català de la Salut, Passatge dels Encants s/n, 08914, Badalona, Spain;Centre d’Atenció Primària la Salut, Institut Català de la Salut, Passatge dels Encants s/n, 08914, Badalona, Spain;Unitat de Suport a la Recerca Metropolitana Nord, IDIAP Jordi Gol, Carrer Major 49-53, 08921, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain;Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Plaça Cívica, 08193, Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain;Unitat de Suport a la Recerca Metropolitana Nord, IDIAP Jordi Gol, Carrer Major 49-53, 08921, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain;Departament de Ciències Mèdiques, Universitat de Girona, Carrer Emili Grahit 77, 17071, Girona, Spain;Unitat de Suport a la Recerca Metropolitana Nord, IDIAP Jordi Gol, Carrer Major 49-53, 08921, Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain;Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Plaça Cívica, 08193, Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain;Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Plaça Cívica, 08193, Bellaterra, Cerdanyola del Vallès, Spain;Unitat de Suport a la Recerca Barcelona Ciutat. IDIAP Jordi Gol, Carrer Sardenya 375, 08025, Barcelona, Spain;Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Carrer Roc Boronat 117, 08018, Barcelona, Spain;

关键词: Remote consultation;    Primary health care;    Problem solving;    Telemedicine;    Referral and consultation;    Education medical continuing;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1471-2296-14-146

 received in 2013-06-25, accepted in 2013-09-30,  发布年份 2013

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThere has been created an online communication tool with the objective to improve the communication among different levels of care, between Primary Care clinicians and Specialists. This tool is web 2.0 based technology (ECOPIH project). It allows to review clinical cases and to share knowledge. Our study will evaluate its impact in terms of reduction on the number of referrals to three specialties two years after the use of this tool.Methods/DesignOpen, multicenter, controlled, non random intervention study over 24 months. Study population includes 131 Primary Care Physicians assigned to nine health centers. The study will compare the clinicians that use the ECOPIH with the ones that do not use the tool. Also, professionals that start to use the tool during the period time of the study will be included.The number of annual referrals during the first and second year will be analyzed and retrospectively compared with the previous year to the implementation of the tool. Moreover, it will be assessed the level of satisfaction of the professionals with the tool and to what extend the tool responds to their needs.DiscussionThe implementation of ECOPIH in the field of Primary Health Care can decrease the number of referrals from primary care to specialist care.It is expected that the reduction will be more noticeable in the group of professionals that use more intensively the tool. Furthermore, we believe that it can be also observed with the professionals that read the contributions of the others.We anticipate high degree of customer satisfaction as it is a very helpful resource never used before in our environment.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Lacasta Tintorer et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2013