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Subramanian U, Hopp F, Lowery J, Woodbridge P, Smith D. Research in home-care telemedicine: challenges in patient recruitment. Telemedicine journal and e-health : the official journal of the American Telemedicine Association. 2004 Jun 1; 10(2):155-61.
Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects. This study reports challenges in recruiting patients for a randomized controlled trial of homecare telemedicine. Descriptive statistics on patient eligibility for home-care telemedicine services and patient refusals for participation are provided. Frequency counts of reasons for study exclusion and participant refusal and Chi-square tests to compare race and age-related differences are given. Of 302 home-care patients reviewed, 197 (65.2%) did not meet inclusion criteria. The most common reasons for study exclusion were patients either needing < 2 visits per month (n = 59, 30%) or > 3 skilled nurse visits per week (n = 46, 23.4%). Of the eligible patients (n = 105), 79 persons (75.2%) refused participation. The most common reasons for refusals were lack of perceived addition benefit of telemedicine (n = 27, 34.2%), and that routine health care was sufficient (n = 23, 29.1%). Higher than expected proportions of patients did not meet chosen eligibility criteria or refused to participate. These results should be helpful in designing home-care telemedicine programs and clinical trials.
