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The Feasibility and Acceptability of Utilizing Telehealth for Increasing Access to Bariatric Surgery

NCT05678179 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 50

Last updated 2025-01-07

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Bariatric surgery is recommended as the most efficacious treatment for patients living with obesity (body mass index \[BMI; kg/m2\] \> 40; or BMI 35-39.9 with related medical conditions). Adoption of telehealth services offers an opportunity to reduce barriers and expand access to high quality specialty care for patients considering bariatric surgery for treatment of obesity. Two important advances in telehealth services occurred during the COVID-19 public health emergency. Specifically, the patient's home is now the origin site for all services where patients are no longer required to travel to a designated telehealth location, and the use of telehealth has expanded to multidisciplinary health care teams. Our bariatric surgery care team has gained valuable experience using a combination of face-to-face (F2F) and telehealth visits for multidisciplinary evaluation in preparation for bariatric surgery since March 2020. Appointments that do not require a physical exam like nutrition, psychology, group education, and medical visits after completion of pre-operative testing are particularly amenable to telehealth services. Increased use of telehealth has the potential to reduce barriers to care (e.g., lack of access to accredited bariatric surgery treatment centers, extended travel time for multiple pre-surgery appointments), increase adherence to required program visits, and increase patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction variables may include reduced time away from work, flexibility in appointment scheduling, and reduced physical demands of multiple F2F visits. A necessary first step is to demonstrate that the protocol outlined below can be successfully implemented in a real-world clinical setting and is deemed acceptable by patients preparing for bariatric surgery.

Conditions

  • Telehealth
  • Face-2-Face (F2F)

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Telehealth

Patients will participate in standard clinical practice for bariatric surgery preparation with 50% of visits occurring via telehealth.

BEHAVIORAL

In Person (Face-2-Face)

Patients will participate in standard clinical practice for bariatric surgery preparation with face-2-face clinic visits.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
18 Years
Max Age
80 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2023-02-06
Primary Completion
2024-03-27
Completion
2024-03-27

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT05678179 on ClinicalTrials.gov