Hospitalizations for exacerbations of asthma and COPD can likely be prevented through effective use of therapies delivered through respiratory inhaler devices. One critical rate-limiting step to effective use is correct inhaler technique. Clinical guidelines recommend assessing and teaching inhaler technique in all settings. The hospitalized patient population is a particularly salient target for evaluating and correcting inhaler technique, as inpatients are at increased risk for poor outcomes, including rehospitalizations. Hospital resources are limited, and patients' ability to retain hospital-based education is likely to be incomplete, which would require post- discharge educational reinforcement. For these reasons, developing and testing portable, effective hospital- based educational strategies are warranted. I have spent the last several years establishing the effectiveness of an in-person Teach-to-Goal [TTG] strategy (rounds of assessment and demonstration until mastery is attained) to instruct hospitalized patients on correct inhaler technique. While we have found that TTG is more effective than simple verbal instructions, it has limitations for implementation. First, it is resource intensive and second, it lacks portabilit for post-discharge reinforcement. Therefore, in this proposal I aim to study whether interactive video-module education (VME) that includes rounds of self-assessment and video-based demonstration, is a non-inferior approach to in-person TTG. VME directly counters TTG's limitations as it is likely less resource-intensive and is portable for post-discharge reinforcemen. Therefore I will develop VME (Aim 1a) and then will test VME vs. TTG in a randomized clinical trial, stratified by diagnosis, since there are inherent different patient and disease characteristcs among patients with asthma and COPD (Aim 1b). Finally, underserved patients may not have access to post-discharge VME. I will therefore conduct an observational study using the Hospitalist Medicine Data Collection Infrastructure, to determine the proportion of patients with access to and willingness to use post-discharge VME (Aim 2). Therefore, with this K23 career development award proposal, I will bring my research experience together with my Mentor, Dr. David Meltzer, Co-Mentor, Dr. Jerry Krishnan, and an expert advisory team in the fields of obstructive lung diseases, comparative effectiveness research, and behavioral and educational interventions to begin to fill these gaps in knowledge and clinical practice. I will use these data to design an R-01 feasibility and cost-effectiveness study to determine the real-world effectiveness of VME to help transition patients from hospital to home with sufficient educational support, and to determine if clinical outcomes improve. This award would also allow me to seek additional training in advanced biostatistics, formal training in the development and assessment of educational strategies, and training in the design and implementation of complex behavioral clinical trials. These experiences will position me to become a leader in developing, evaluating and implementing high-quality interventions to improve patient self-management of obstructive lung disease to improve clinical outcomes.
Improved respiratory inhaler technique may be a critical component of efforts to improve clinical outcomes and public health for patients with obstructive lung disease, including reduced hospitalizations and re- hospitalizations, decreased deaths and lower national and local costs. This proposal would allow for the development of novel and cutting edge interactive video-module education (VME) to compare to the current gold standard in-person teach-to-goal (TTG) strategy, while simultaneously determining the potential for use of VME to help transition patients' post-hospital discharge. The data from this proposal will be critical for the development of future R-01 studies to assess the feasibility, cost-effectiveness and impact on clinical and public health outcomes of VME vs. TTG hospital-based education for correct inhaler technique.
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